The unprecedented restrictions imposed due to the COVID-19 pandemic altered our daily habits and severely affected our well-being and physiology. The effect of these changes is yet to be fully understood. Here, we analysed highly detailed data on 169 participants for two to six months, before and during the second COVID-19 lockdown in Israel. We extracted 12 well-being indicators from sensory data of smartwatches and from self-reported questionnaires, filled daily using a designated mobile application. We found that, in general, lockdowns resulted in significant changes in mood, sleep duration, sport duration, social encounters, resting heart rate and number of steps. Examining subpopulations, we found that younger participants (aged 20–40 years) suffered from a greater decline in mood and number of steps than older participants (aged 60–80 years). Likewise, women suffered from a higher increase in stress and reduction in social encounters than men. Younger early chronotypes did not increase their sleep duration and exhibited the highest drop in mood. Our findings underscore that while lockdowns severely impacted our well-being and physiology in general, greater damage has been identified in certain subpopulations. Accordingly, special attention should be given to younger people, who are usually not in the focus of social support, and to women.

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The unprecedented restrictions imposed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, including movement control orders and lockdowns, altered our daily habits, and severely affected our well-being and physiology. The effect of these changes is yet to be fully understood. Here, we analyzed highly detailed data on 169 participants for 2-6 months, before and during the second COVID-19 lockdown in Israel. Our entire study was conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic, and therefore is the first to decipher the specific effects of the lockdown from the general effects of the pandemic. We extracted 12 well-being indicators from sensory data of smartwatches and from self-reported questionnaires, filled on a daily basis using a designated mobile application. We used a mixed ANOVA model to study the interplay between age, gender, and chorotype on well-being before and after lockdowns. We found that at the population level, lockdowns resulted in significant changes in mood, sleep duration, sport duration, social encounters, resting heart rate, and the number of steps. The lockdown's adverse effects were greater for young early chronotypes who did not increase their sleep duration, reduced activity level and suffered from significantly reduced mood, and for women, who further suffered an increase in stress levels and a greater decline in social encounters. Our findings underscore that while lockdowns severely impacted our well-being and physiology in general, greater damage has been identified in certain subpopulations. Based on the observed effects, special attention should be given to younger people, who are usually not in the focus of social support, and to women.

To prevent and reduce the spread of COVID-19, governments around the world apply social restrictions and lockdowns. Such lockdowns significantly alter daily routine and habits. A growing body of research indicates that lockdowns affect sleep and circadian rhythms. The current study further explores this effect using sleep logs for a relatively long duration including lockdown and post-lockdown periods in Israel. For two consecutive months, both during lockdown and during post-lockdown periods, from March 13th, 2020 to May 12th, 2020, Israeli students were asked to fill out daily sleep logs in which they report their sleep and wake times. The participants were also asked to fill out the Morningness–Eveningness Questionnaire (MEQ) in the beginning of the study. Data show increase in sleep duration and a delayed midsleep point during lockdown, compared to post-lockdown periods, both on workdays and on weekends. An interaction between chronotype and lockdown was also observed; morning types sleep more both during lockdown and during post-lockdown periods. Interestingly, the midsleep point of late chronotypes is later during both workdays and weekends even during lockdown when social constrains on sleep time are in part removed. Overall, the current results based on detailed and relatively long-term sleep logs analysis confirm previous work using limited measures, such as one-time questionnaires. A lockdown period affects sleep–wake behavior: during lockdown people sleep duration is increased and their sleep onset is delayed. Nevertheless, the circadian preference of individuals is conserved across conditions.