Social, Biological and Behavioral Factors Associated with Social Jet Lag and Sleep Duration in University Students from a Low Urbanized City

Abstract

Introduction: Sleep deprivation and social jet lag are observed in college students from highly urbanized cities. However, does these consequences also present in college students from a low urbanization city? Objective: To evaluate the prevalence and social, biological and behavioral factors associated with sleep deprivation and social jet lag in university students from a low urbanized city of Brazil. Methods: A total of 298 university students participated in the study through application of the Health and Sleep and the Munich Chronotype Questionnaires. Multiple linear regression with stepwise-forward method was adopted to assess the associations of the factors with the outcome variables. Results: Doing leisure activities (LA) (B = 23.24) and academic demand (AD) before bedtime (B = 19.51), both on the weekend, and doing household chores (HC) before bedtime (B = 17.61) in the week were associated with an increase in social jet lag, while stimulating drinks (SD) were associated with a decrease (B = −15.17). Shorter sleep duration in the week was related to chronotype (B = −0.56), male (B = −26.51), doing LA (B = −27.63), poor perception about sleeping place (PPSP) (B = −43.02) and daily commute (B = −68.97). The shorter sleep duration in the weekend was associated to male (B = −36.36), PPSP (B = −58.16), have recreational and religious activities (B = −31.11), doing LA (B = −25.10) and AD (B = −23.60). Just chronotype was associated with longer sleep duration in the weekend (B = 0.25). Conclusion: University students from a low urbanized city present social jet lag, shorter sleep duration on school days and longer sleep duration on free days as a result of biological and social factors, and mostly behavioral factors.

The effects of social jetlag and sleep variability on sleepiness in a population‐based study: The mediating role of sleep debt

“…The social jetlag prevalence rate in our sample was lower than those described in the literature. We observed a lower mean social jetlag (Table 1) with a prevalence of >1 h of social jetlag in 23% of our sample, while a more recent research report 30%-50% of individuals experiencing social jetlag >1 h and 10% >2 h (Di et al, 2022;Islam et al, 2020;Lang et al, 2018;Lopes et al, 2022;Suikki et al, 2021).…”

“…The other factors associated with social jetlag in these previous studies, and which may have changed over the past 15 years, were longer sleep duration on free days, eveningness, depressive symptoms, leisure activities on free days, and the consumption of stimulating drinks. Interestingly, these social jetlag prevalence rates were demonstrated in a range of populations with different characteristics (Australians, Japanese, North Americans, and Brazilian college students) and in a more recent time frame than that of our results (between 2016 and 2020 vs. 2007) (Islam et al, 2020;Lang et al, 2018;Lopes et al, 2022;Suikki et al, 2021).…”

“…Our results suggest that circadian misalignment contributes to the generation of sleepiness through two mechanisms, a direct effect of chronotype (as observed in the secondary model, Table 2) and by affecting the mediating variable, sleep debt (Table 3). (Lopes et al, 2022;Okajima et al, 2021;Tamura et al, 2022), which was not the case in our protocol. Finally, data on the specific work and free days for each participant were unavailable.…”

Sleep Quality and Social Jetlag in Young Adults During the Social Distancing Caused by COVID-19

“…Thus, this output leads to possible homeostatic compensation 41 which in turn results in increased sleep duration on days off and contributes to irregular SWC. 42 In some comparisons in this study, we observed that the data related to "I go to bed at" had earlier values than "I decide to sleep at" (the latter variable being respectively earlier and later than bedtime per se). We hypothesize that during the lockdown, sleep habits, study hours, and physical activity were impaired, which could lead individuals to already be in bed doing another activity, even before the time they decide to go to sleep.…”

Effects of Chronotype and Social Jet-Lag on Neurocognitive Functioning

“…One of the arrangements that can be made to minimize this functional loss might be to observe the chronotype in working life and to arrange the shifts according to the chronotype in working areas, which usually require shifts. Such regulation can only be applied to a small number of individuals who can work in shifts since work and social life depend on social time (Guzel Özdemir et al 2018, de Medeiros Lopes et al 2022. Sleep hygiene comes first among the measures that can be taken to avoid social jet lag, which has impacts on neurocognitive functions as a more common factor in individuals with eveningness.…”