Publication date: Oct 03, 2024

The COVID-19 pandemic, while a major stressor, increased flexibility in sleep-wake schedules. To investigate the impact of the pandemic on sleep patterns in people with a history of depression and identify sociodemographic, clinical or genetic predictors of those impacts. 6453 adults from the Australian Genetics of Depression Study (45+/-15 years; 75% women) completed surveys before (2016-2018) and during the pandemic (2020-2021). Participants were assigned to ‘short sleep’ (8 hours). We focused on those having prepandemic ‘optimal sleep’. Pre pandemic, the majority (70%, n=4514) reported optimal sleep, decreasing to 49% (n=3189) during the pandemic. Of these, 57% maintained optimal sleep, while 16% (n=725) shifted to ‘short sleep’ and 27% (n=1225) to ‘long sleep’. In group comparisons ‘optimal-to-short sleep’ group had worse prepandemic mental health and increased insomnia (p’s

Semantics