CPC Director on ITV News coronavirus podcast

Last year, we reported on a CPC study that found the Covid-19 pandemic has caused sleeping difficulties for women with young children, key workers and people of Black, Asian and minority ethnic heritage. The study, initially carried out in 2020 during the first four months of the pandemic, has since been widely reported and cited across news articles, stemming from its coverage in The Guardian in July 2020 in the article ‘Coronavirus lockdown caused sharp increase of insomnia in UK’. The project’s lead, CPC Director, Professor Jane Falkingham OBE, appeared on the ITV News podcast ‘Coronavirus: What you need to know’ in February 2021 to discuss the research further with presenter, Lucrezia Millarini, and James Wilson – aka The Sleep Geek - a sleep behaviour and environment expert.

Conducted by Professor Falkingham and a team from CPC and the Centre for Research on Ageing, the analysis used survey data from the Understanding Society COVID-19 Study collected between April and July 2020. It was then compared with survey data collected in 2018/19. The first lockdown led to a rise in the number of people suffering sleeping problems from one in six (15.7%) of the sample to one in four (24.7%). The study revealed that sleep loss is affecting more people during the Covid-19 pandemic, reflecting rising stress levels due to anxieties about health, financial consequences, changes in social life and daily routine, all of which may affect sleep. Sleep deprivation can have knock-on effects for physical and mental health.

As Professor Falkingham says in the podcast: “It’s the combination of factors, so if you’re a woman, from a black or minority ethnic group and with small children, you are three times more likely to suffer sleep loss.”

Speaking about potential causes of anxiety and stress leading to sleep loss, Professor Falkingham commented: “As we moved into the summer, those differentials [around anxiety about getting ill or dying from Covid-19] seemed to narrow a bit, and actually it was the combination of home schooling and home working that really seemed to kick in. It was actually very stressful to be doing all of those things. For many women in particular, if they were caring for children during the day, and then they’re doing their work, they’ve displaced their activities. So they’re actually starting to creep into doing activities late at night.” The study team have been examining further waves of the Understanding Society COVID-19 survey to understand the continuing effects of the pandemic on sleeplessness and plan to update their findings in the coming months.

You can listen to the recording wherever you get your podcasts, including Apple Podcasts and Spotify - or listen using the ITV News web player.

Further reading

Who’s been losing sleep during lockdown? (CPC Policy Briefing 55)

Sleepless in Lockdown: unpacking differences in sleep loss during the coronavirus pandemic in the UK (medRxiv)

‘Sleepless in Lockdown’: unpacking differences in sleep loss during the coronavirus pandemic in the UK (The Lancet SSRN)

Coronavirus lockdown caused sharp increase of insomnia in UK (The Guardian)

COVID-19: mental health and wellbeing surveillance report’ (Public Health England)

Coronavirus (COVID-19): impact on children, young people and families - evidence summary September 2020’ (Scottish Government)