Department of Biotechnological and Applied Clinical Sciences, University of L'Aquila, L'Aquila, Italy.
Department of Psychology, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy.
Sci Rep. 2022 Jul 18;12(1):12249. doi: 10.1038/s41598-022-16256-6.
Eveningness is distinctively associated with sleep disturbances and depression symptoms due to the misalignment between biological and social clocks. The widespread imposition of remote working due to the COVID-19 pandemic allowed a more flexible sleep schedule. This scenario could promote sleep and mental health in evening-type subjects. We investigated the effect of working from home on sleep quality/quantity and insomnia symptoms within the morningness-eveningness continuum, and its indirect repercussions on depressive symptomatology. A total of 610 Italian office workers (mean age ± standard deviation, 35.47 ± 10.17 years) and 265 remote workers (40.31 ± 10.69 years) participated in a web-based survey during the second contagion wave of COVID-19 (28 November-11 December 2020). We evaluated chronotype, sleep quality/duration, insomnia, and depression symptoms through validated questionnaires. Three moderated mediation models were performed on cross-sectional data, testing the mediation effect of sleep variables on the association between morningness-eveningness continuum and depression symptoms, with working modality (office vs. remote working) as moderator of the relationship between chronotype and sleep variables. Remote working was associated with delayed bedtime and get-up time. Working modality moderated the chronotype effect on sleep variables, as eveningness was related to worse sleep disturbances and shorter sleep duration among the office workers only. Working modality also moderated the mediation of sleep variables between chronotype and depression. The above mediation vanished among remote workers. The present study suggests that evening-type people did not show their characteristic vulnerability to sleep problems when working from home. This result could imply a reduction of the proposed sleep-driven predisposition to depression of late chronotypes. A working environment complying with individual circadian preferences might ensure an adequate sleep quantity/quality for the evening-type population, promoting their mental health.
由于生物节律和社会节律的不匹配，傍晚型与睡眠障碍和抑郁症状明显相关。由于 COVID-19 大流行，远程工作的广泛实施允许更灵活的睡眠时间表。这种情况可能会促进傍晚型人群的睡眠和心理健康。我们调查了在家工作对睡眠质量/数量和失眠症状的影响，以及其对抑郁症状的间接影响。共有 610 名意大利上班族（平均年龄 ± 标准差，35.47 ± 10.17 岁）和 265 名远程工作者（40.31 ± 10.69 岁）在 COVID-19 第二次感染浪潮期间（2020 年 11 月 28 日至 12 月 11 日）参加了一项基于网络的调查。我们通过验证过的问卷评估了昼夜节律类型、睡眠质量/时长、失眠和抑郁症状。在横断面数据上进行了三个调节中介模型，测试了睡眠变量对昼夜节律类型与抑郁症状之间关联的中介效应，以工作模式（办公室与远程工作）作为昼夜节律类型与睡眠变量之间关系的调节变量。远程工作与入睡时间和起床时间延迟有关。工作模式调节了昼夜节律类型对睡眠变量的影响，因为只有在办公室工作者中，傍晚型与更严重的睡眠障碍和更短的睡眠时间有关。工作模式还调节了睡眠变量在昼夜节律类型和抑郁之间的中介作用。这种中介作用在远程工作者中消失了。本研究表明，当在家工作时，傍晚型人群并没有表现出他们特有的易患睡眠问题的倾向。这一结果可能意味着，对于晚型昼夜节律者来说，睡眠驱动的抑郁倾向可能会减少。一个符合个体生物钟偏好的工作环境可能会确保傍晚型人群获得足够的睡眠质量/数量，促进他们的心理健康。
