Adrift in time: the subjective experience of circadian challenge during COVID-19 amongst people with mood disorders

ABSTRACT

Social distancing/lockdown policies during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic may alter social rhythms of people through imposition of restrictions on normal daily activities. This may in turn challenge circadian function, particularly in people with mood disorders. Although objective data describing the relationship between circadian disturbances and mood disorders exist, data regarding the subjective experience of circadian challenge is sparse, and its association with mood symptoms is unclear. The present qualitative study was one component of a mixed-methods multi-national project, which took advantage of widespread disruption to daily routines due to Government COVID-related lockdowns during 2020. The Behavior Emotion and Timing during COVID-19 (BEATCOVID) survey study included three open questions generating qualitative data on participants’ subjective experience of social disruption due to social distancing/lockdown policies, two of which asked about the barriers and opportunities for stabilizing routines. Responses were coded and analyzed using Thematic Analysis. A total of N = 997 participants responded to at least one of the free-text questions. Four themes were identified: 1) loss of daily timed activities, 2) role of social interaction, 3) altered time perception and 4) disruption to motivation and associated psychological effects. Themes were organized into a provisional heuristic map, generating hypotheses for future research centered on the new concept of ‘psychological drift.’

KEYWORDS:

• COVID-19
• circadian
• depression
• bipolar disorder
• mood
• social rhythms

Acknowledgements

The authors would also like to thank all those who participated in the BEATCOVID project, for generously offering us their time and experience.

Disclosure statement

PK, MC, JG, BB, YM and MG report no conflict of interest. HS reports grants from Myriad Genetics, Wolters Kluwer, Otsuka, American Psychiatric Association Publishing, Novus Medical Education, outside the submitted work. LY reports personal fees from Alkermes, Merck, Otsuka, Sanofi, Sunovion, CANMAT, grants and personal fees from Allergan, CIHR, Dainippon Sumitomo, Intracellular Therapies, Lundbeck, outside the submitted work. MI reports other from Gama Foundation, outside the submitted work. RP reports other from CBT-pro, Lundbeck, Servier Australia, outside the submitted work. AN reports other from Alkermes, Jazz Pharma, Sage Pharma, Otsuka, Neuronetics, Acadia Pharma, Esai, Myriad, Ginger, Protogenics, Merck and personal fees from Sunovion, and Neurostar, outside the submitted work. BH reports grants from ZonMW Postdoc fellowship, outside the submitted work. GM reports grants from READINESS PTY LTD, SISU HEALTH, Barbara Dicker brain sciences foundation and NHMRC, outside the submitted work.

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Notes

1. An assumption of BEATCOVID was that disturbed daily routines are only one of the psychological challenges of COVID-19. This assumption was tested in the quantitative aspect of BEATCOVID (through explained variance, see Greg Murray et al. 2021): In the present qualitative study, we expected participant responses to cover experiences both related to and independent of social zeitgeber change management.

2. Prominence was measured as the proportion of participants whose response contained a code related to a given theme. We thank an anonymous reviewer for this suggestion.

Additional information

Funding

This research received no specific grant from any funding agency, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.