The effect of COVID-19 pandemic stay-at-home orders on sleep deprivation in medical students: a retrospective study

Abstract: The COVID-19 pandemic required medical schools to transition to online learning due to mandated stay-at-home orders. This created a drastic change in the learning environment and behavior of medical students, as well as increased stress about school and the pandemic, which may have impacted sleep. This study assessed medical student sleep timing, duration and quality retrospectively using the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) and a sleep questionnaire to determine changes prior to and following the stay-at-home orders. In addition, perceptions of stress related to COVID-19 and to school, as well as age and gender, were examined using a survey to determine relationships to sleep variables. Repeated-measures MANOVAs showed that medical student sleep timing changed significantly, shifting sleep and wake times later on both weekdays and weekends (p < 0.001). In addition, sleep quality significantly worsened post-COVID as compared to pre-COVID, with most subscales of the PSQI worsening after the stay-at-home order, especially in males. Older students had significantly longer sleep duration than younger students post-COVID. Sleep duration did not change significantly, and stress was not significantly related to sleep quality. Interestingly, sleep medication usage significantly increased post-COVID, with more students using sleep medications more frequently after the stay-at-home order (p < 0.05). This study represents the first research to assess how medical student sleep timing, quality and medication use was affected by the stay-at-home order due to the COVID-19 pandemic. © The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022.