Sleep and Mental Health Disturbances Due to Social Isolation during the COVID-19 Pandemic in Mexico

Guadalupe Terán-Pérez, Angelica Portillo-Vásquez, Yoaly Arana-Lechuga, Oscar Sánchez-Escandón, Roberto Mercadillo-Caballero, Rosa Obdulia González-Robles and Javier Velázquez-Moctezuma
Additional contact information
Guadalupe Terán-Pérez: Centro de Sueño y Neurociencias, Benito Juárez, 06700 Mexico City, Mexico
Angelica Portillo-Vásquez: Centro de Sueño y Neurociencias, Benito Juárez, 06700 Mexico City, Mexico
Yoaly Arana-Lechuga: Centro de Sueño y Neurociencias, Benito Juárez, 06700 Mexico City, Mexico
Oscar Sánchez-Escandón: Neurophysiology Service, ABC Hospital, 05330 Mexico City, Mexico
Roberto Mercadillo-Caballero: Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnologia, Universidad Autonoma Metropolitana-Iztapalapa, 09340 Mexico City, Mexico
Rosa Obdulia González-Robles: Sleep Disorders Clinic, Universidad Autonoma Metropolitana, Iztapalapa, 09340 Mexico City, Mexico
Javier Velázquez-Moctezuma: Centro de Sueño y Neurociencias, Benito Juárez, 06700 Mexico City, Mexico

IJERPH, 2021, vol. 18, issue 6, 1-11

Abstract: The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) that broke out in China in December 2019 rapidly became a worldwide pandemic. In Mexico, the conditions requiring the declaration of a sanitary emergency were reached by the last week of March 2020, and health authorities’ limited mobility and imposed social isolation were the main strategies to keep the virus from spreading. Thus, daily living conditions changed drastically in a few days, generating a stressful situation characterized by an almost complete lack of mobility, social isolation, and forced full-time interactions with family members. Soon, complaints of sleep disturbances, anxiety, and symptoms of depression were reported. The present study reports the results of an online survey performed during the first two months of isolation. Questionnaires exploring sleep disturbances, anxiety, and depression were sent to people who responded to an open invitation. A total of 1230 participants filled out the sleep questionnaire, 812 responded to the anxiety questionnaire, and 814 responded to the depression questionnaire. Both men and women reported poor sleep quality, but women showed a higher proportion (79%) than men (60%); young women were more likely to be affected by social isolation. Concerning anxiety and depression, both sexes reported high similar symptoms. These data suggest that stressful conditions related to social isolation and the economic uncertainty caused by the pandemic may induce mental health disturbances, which may become worse with sleep restriction.

Keywords: COVID-19; sleep disturbances; anxiety; depression (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/6/2804/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/6/2804/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:18:y:2021:i:6:p:2804-:d:514157

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().