Together with a team, Schabus carried out the study with 2,232 young people in Austria. The survey was carried out in spring 2021 after around a year of Corona. Every third elementary school student (33.1 percent) complained about sleep disorders such as nightmares, problems falling asleep or sleeping through the night. This value was similarly high in the lower grades (35.2 percent), but among young people aged 15 to 18 it was almost half (45.8 percent). A survey before the outbreak of the pandemic shows how much the disturbances have increased: At that time, 13.3 percent of elementary school students still had problems, in the lower grades it was 20.5 percent and among young people 29.0 percent.
Should have been improvements
“Actually, there should have been an improvement because the children and young people were able to sleep longer thanks to the lockdown and home schooling. But the effect did not take effect due to the stress caused by the pandemic,” says Schabus, who runs the laboratory for conducts sleep, cognition, and consciousness research. However, the experts also surveyed other living conditions with frightening results: three quarters of all young people admitted that they had been moving less since the outbreak of the pandemic, almost every second person came out into the open less often and 85 percent of all respondents stated that they spent more time with their smartphones and/or tablet.
Children are hyper, argue lightly
What are the effects of sleep disorders in adolescents? “On the one hand, this leads to emotional irritation, the children are excited instead of balanced, which shows, for example, that they argue more easily.” In addition, there would be cognitive impairments, children are less attentive and less able to remember. In addition, the immune system is also attacked and weakened, which in turn is reflected in an easier susceptibility to infections, the psychologist explained.
country comparison
In a second study, Schabus and his colleagues researched the effects of the pandemic on the sleep behavior of adults in six countries (Austria, Germany, Greece, Ukraine, Cuba and Brazil), distinguishing between “essential” and non-essential occupations. People in the second groups went to bed later, but still slept a quarter of an hour longer each night during the week. The “social jet lag” – lack of sleep during the working week, which is at least partially compensated for at the weekend – has naturally decreased. People with “essential” jobs also went to bed later and got up later during the lockdowns, but slept no longer during the week and even less at weekends.
Third study planned
With another sleep survey (“How does Austria sleep?”), Schabus and his team now want to see whether the Austrians see a way out of the pandemic and how this is reflected in their sleep or how it compares to the lockdowns and more carefree ones Times before Corona is slept.
Service: Study “How does Austria sleep” on www.nukkuaa.com. Participants are still being sought; www.sleepscience.at)
Source: Nachrichten
