Pandemic Sleeping Schedules

The pandemic has hit many people in very different ways. From financial issues, to health issues and sleeping changes.

 During this time, many people have developed terrible sleeping habits due to stress, anxiety, and many other mental issues. People from all age groups have been affected by this. The term that is being used for this issue is “coronasomnia”, because of how many people are developing insomnia in this time. A clinical health professor from UC Davis said that since COVID-19, the rise in insomnia has been enormous. Not only this but other professionals have found that there have been higher rates of depression, anxiety, and stress developed since COVID which is really affecting people.

Some of the problems is that people’s routines are now all messed up with the pandemic. They are staying home more, decreasing their activities causing them to become anxious and depressed. They have more time and don’t know what to do with it. In my case, I am home way more now, which makes me become lazy and anxious. Many are also stressing about jobs, and being able to support their families with so much being up in the air right now. I definitely feel the toll of the pandemic affecting my sleep schedule. 

Before the pandemic hit, I was going to sleep around 10:00-10:30pm. Now, I am lucky to go to sleep at 1:30 am, but usually I am falling asleep around 2:30-3:00 am. I then wake up at 7:30am which ends up with me sleeping throughout the day. I hate this sleep schedule that I’ve developed. I feel so sluggish throughout the day and restless at night. I find myself scrolling through apps on my phone as I lay there. “We’re supposed to be up in the daytime and sleeping at night, but a lot of people are working and sleeping all these weird hours…Once the master clock gets disrupted, everything else breaks down,” (UC Health Professor, Kimberly Hardin). This means that since everything is out of tune, our bodies start to form these weird habits that can be unhealthy for us. The problem is that I know I’m not the only one who has had this issue.

Many of my friends and family have also developed bad sleeping habits. People are stressing about what they are going to do, their normal routines being ruined, and worrying about so many things that are cancelled right now. To find out how some others are feeling, I decided to ask a couple friends and family members about their experience since lockdown:

Heather Wolf: “I have always had sleeping issues, but I can tell that things have been different since the lockdown. I am more tired throughout the day but when I sleep, I am waking up a lot at night. I just feel uncomfortable and I’m thinking about so many things.”

Victoria Spears (12th): “I really have developed bad sleeping habits since the lockdown. I will be on instagram till like 2 am and then have trouble falling asleep after I get off. I think all of this is because we aren’t doing our normal activities throughout the day.”

“As human beings, we need some stimulation. We need some variety in our activities,” said Angela Drake, a clinical health professor. We need to be able to go out and have routines or changes in our lives. We need to feel some type of normalcy or else it will really take a toll on mental health as well as physical health. When things become so repetitive and boring, we tend to gain bad habits that aren’t healthy for us. It’s important to try and find activities throughout the week to help things feel a little more normal as well as try and go back to our normal routines and habits.