Department of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, McGill University, Montréal, QC, Canada; Attention, Behaviour and Sleep Lab, Douglas Mental Health University Institute, Montréal, Canada.
Heritage Regional High School, Riverside School Board, Quebec, Canada.
Sleep Med. 2020 Dec;76:33-35. doi: 10.1016/j.sleep.2020.09.015. Epub 2020 Sep 22.
During the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, high schools closed or transitioned to remote teaching. The aim of this study was to describe how the COVID-19 related school shutdown impacted the sleep behaviors of typically developing adolescents.
A qualitative study was conducted between April 28 and June 3, 2020 with 45 adolescents using one-on-one semi-structured phone interviews.
The "natural experiment" caused by the shutdown of schools due to the COVID-19 pandemic led to a 2-h shift in the sleep of typically developing adolescents, longer sleep duration, improved sleep quality, and less daytime sleepiness compared to those experienced under the regular school-time schedule.
These findings are consistent with previous studies showing that delaying high school start times could be an effective way to extend sleep duration, improve sleep quality, reduce daytime sleepiness and lower adolescents' stress during the school year. As many countries look for ways to reduce the number of interactions between students in schools so that physical distancing is feasible, following teens' delayed sleep biology could offer an affordable solution. For example, staggering arrival times by delaying school start time for older adolescents compared with younger adolescents can reduce the total number of students attending school at the same time. This strategy offers a practical means to reduce school density and the number of interactions between students which are needed to reduce the potential transmission of COVID-19 in schools, while improving adolescents sleep health.
2020 年 COVID-19 大流行期间，高中关闭或转为远程教学。本研究旨在描述 COVID-19 相关学校关闭如何影响青少年的睡眠行为。
2020 年 4 月 28 日至 6 月 3 日，对 45 名青少年进行了一项定性研究，采用一对一的半结构式电话访谈。
由于 COVID-19 大流行导致学校关闭的“自然实验”导致青少年的睡眠时间平均延迟了 2 小时，睡眠时间延长，睡眠质量提高，白天困倦减少，与正常上学时间相比。
这些发现与之前的研究一致，表明推迟高中开始时间可能是延长睡眠时间、提高睡眠质量、减少白天困倦和降低青少年在学年期间压力的有效方法。随着许多国家寻求减少学生在学校之间互动的数量，以便可行地保持身体距离，遵循青少年的延迟睡眠生物学可能提供一种负担得起的解决方案。例如，通过推迟较年长青少年的上学时间来错开到校时间，可以减少同时上学的学生总数。这种策略提供了一种实用的方法来降低学校密度和学生之间的互动次数，这是减少 COVID-19 在学校传播的必要条件，同时改善青少年的睡眠健康。
