Mental Health and Sleep During the Covid-19 Pandemic: Comparing University Students with Regular and Irregular Bedtime Schedules
Abstract
The value of a good night's sleep is often underestimated. However recently, it has been gaining in importance; sleep is crucial for the immune system and the overall maintenance of mental, physical, cognitive and social functions. When we sleep at reasonable times in harmony with our biological and social clock, maintain a consistent sleep routine and sleep well, our bodies benefit from it.
If there is a deficiency in some of these aspects, problems can arise: very short or very long sleep duration is associated with chronic physical diseases, and poor sleep quality is associated with higher stress levels and negative moods, and also both physical and mental health complaints. The level of mental distress among young adults was high even before the pandemic, but the Covid19 outbreak seems to have further amplified these issues. It is the young adults who are the most at risk of highest levels of depression from all the age groups including the older age groups. During the outbreak, a lot changed: lectures moved to online platforms significantly lessening time spent socially present.
Home confinement along with the decrease in sleep quality impacted harmfully students' mental health. Using the data collected by the Faculty of Social
Sciences of the CU and Institute of Sociology of the Czech Academy of Sciences during Spring 2021, I will present preliminary results from examining the link between various sleep determinants and mental health among Czech university students with the emphasis on the comparison of regular and irregular schedules.