Effect of COVID-19 lockdown on sleep behavior and screen exposure time: an observational study among Indian school children

ABSTRACT

Lockdown is an important measure that has been globally adopted to reduce the spread of the contagious disease caused by SARS CoV-2. The imposed schedule and confinement led to extensive use of digital media and rise in sedentary activity drastically. The escalated duration of screen exposure causes disruption in sleep behavior. An online survey was conducted to comprehend the effect of lockdown on sleep behavior and screen exposure time on school children. Screen exposure time involved with various electronic gadgets was also analyzed. It was observed that the social jet lag and sleep debt were significantly less during lockdown than before it. Inertia during lockdown significantly increased. The difference between screen exposure time on weekdays before lockdown and weekends during lockdown was identified to be the highest. Three clusters based on sleep behavior and duration of screen time were identified of which Cluster 2 revealed simultaneous existence of high sleep duration and screen time. These baseline data on sleep parameters and duration of exposure to the screen will help us in devising approaches to mitigate the evident disruption this unprecedented phase has brought about.

KEYWORDS:

• Lockdown
• sleep behavior
• screen exposure time
• school children
• circadian realignment

Acknowledgments

Authors are thankful to the participants for providing consent to participate and patiently responding to the online questionnaire. The technical support provided by Ahan Karmakar (Presidency University) in executing the online survey using Google forms is hereby acknowledged.

Author’s contribution

Koumi Dutta developed the study concept, contributed to the study design, data collection, data analysis, interpreted the data, drafted the manuscript. Ruchira Mukherjee performed data analysis, interpreted the data, drafted the manuscript. Devashish Sen developed the study concept and approved the final version for submission. Subhashis Sahu developed the study concept and approved the final version for submission.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

The funding for this work has been provided from SVMCM (Swami Vivekananda Merit Cum Means fellowship, Government of West Bengal (IN) received by Koumi Dutta.Personal Research Grant provided by University of Kalyani to Dr. Subhashis Sahu.