The Differential Impact of COVID-19 Lockdown on Sleep Quality, Insomnia, Depression, Stress, and Anxiety among Late Adolescents and Elderly in Italy

Abstract

The restraining measures due to the COVID-19 outbreak deeply affected the general population’s sleep health and psychological status. The current literature proposes young and older people as two particularly at-risk groups. However, the differential impact of the lockdown period in these specific age categories needs to be disentangled. Through a web-based survey adopting validated questionnaires, we evaluated and compared sleep quality/habits, insomnia, perceived stress, depression, and anxiety symptoms of Italian late adolescents (n = 670; mean age ± SD, 19.38 ± 0.74, 18–20 years) and elderly (n = 253; 68.18 ± 2.79, 65–75 years). Young respondents reported more severe insomnia symptoms, worse subjective sleep quality, longer sleep latency, higher daytime dysfunction, and a more prevalent disruption of sleep habits (bedtime, get-up time, nap) than the elderly. On the other hand, older participants showed shorter sleep duration, lower habitual sleep efficiency, and greater use of sleep medications. Finally, the younger population displayed higher levels of depression and perceived stress. Our findings indicate that the lockdown period had more pervasive repercussions on sleep and the mental health of late adolescents. The implementation of supportive strategies is encouraged for this vulnerable population group.

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“…The present results were obtained in a sample where older respondents and females experienced poorer sleep quality and more severe insomnia symptoms, women reported higher depressive symptomatology, and younger people slept longer and showed more severe depression. These results are consistent with an extensive pre-pandemic and pandemic literature showing a tendency of women to report worse sleep disturbances 6 , 45 , 47 , 48 , 52 and depression symptoms 46 , 47 , 52 , as well as the predisposition of older age to experience poorer sleep quality 6 , 48 , 58 , 59 , more insomnia 6 , 50 , shorter sleep duration 51 , 58 , and a lower predisposition to mood disorders 51 , 52 .…”

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“…Regarding age, the youngest subjects were the most worried about BW and were more vulnerable to workaholism, particularly compulsive overworking, regardless of the pandemic stage. Most studies from Italy, as well as from other eastern and western countries, highlighted that lower age represents a risk factor for developing psychological symptoms due to the impact of the pandemic ( Gualano et al, 2020 ; Prati, 2020 ; Amicucci et al, 2021 ; Marelli et al, 2021 ). Additionally, they integrate them shedding light on the working dimension.…”

“…We expected that: (a) the Reopening and the Vaccination Round, as a moment of forced changes in the work routine, would be characterized by the higher levels of workaholism and work-family conflict; (b) since worldwide being a woman and lower age represented risk factors for developing psychological symptoms, such as anxiety, depression, and sleep disorders, due to the impact of the pandemic even in longitudinal studies ( Gualano et al, 2020 ; Prati, 2020 ; Amicucci et al, 2021 ; Marelli et al, 2021 ; Salfi et al, 2021a ), women and younger subjects would show the higher levels of workaholism and work-family interference, regardless of the time point of assessment; (c) higher Concern about BW and higher work-family conflict would be related to the higher number of children in a family and the higher number of days spent in HW.…”