Author Interviews, Circadian Rhythm, COVID -19 Coronavirus, Sleep Disorders / 15.06.2020
Quarantine Reduced ‘Social Jet Lag’ especially for Night Owls
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Dr. Christine Blume PhD
Centre for Chronobiology
Psychiatric Hospital of the University of Basel
Transfaculty Research Platform Molecular and Cognitive Neurosciences
Basel
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: In modern societies, human rest-activity rhythms and sleep are between the often-conflicting poles of external social time (e.g., work hours and leisure activities) and an individual’s internal biological time. This can lead to so-called “social jetlag”, which has repeatedly been associated with detrimental health effects. With the restrictions to control the pandemic, social timing relaxed as people many started working from home and public life came to a standstill. In an online survey with 435 respondents, we investigated the effects of the phase with the strictest COVID-19 restrictions on the relationship between social and biological rhythms as well as sleep during a six-week period (mid-March until end of April 2020) in three European societies (Austria, Germany, Switzerland). (more…)