How the COVID-19 Pandemic Reshaped Student Sleep and Chronotypes
Remember those pandemic nights when you'd find yourself scrolling through social media at 2 a.m., wondering how you'd ever wake up for your morning Zoom class? You weren't alone. As university campuses worldwide shuttered their doors in early 2020, students everywhere experienced a massive disruption to their daily routines—especially their sleep. The COVID-19 pandemic didn't just transform how we work and learn; it fundamentally altered our relationship with sleep, particularly for the university population already notorious for irregular sleep schedules.
The transition to remote learning created a perfect storm for sleep disruption. The blurring boundaries between bedroom and classroom, reduced physical activity, increased screen time, and the elimination of commutes that once provided structure to our days—all these factors conspired to reshape student sleep patterns in profound ways.
But what exactly changed, why did it matter, and perhaps most importantly, what can the scientific evidence tell us about how to rebuild healthier sleep habits in a post-pandemic world?
Before we dive into the pandemic's impact, let's explore a fundamental concept in sleep science: chronotype. Your chronotype is your natural predisposition for sleeping and waking at particular times—essentially, your body's internal scheduling preference.
Prefer waking early and are most productive in the morning hours
Fall somewhere between the two extremes
Feel most alert in the evening and prefer later wake times
These preferences aren't just arbitrary choices; they're biologically embedded in our circadian rhythms—the approximately 24-hour internal clocks that regulate numerous physiological processes, including our sleep-wake cycles. Our circadian rhythms are primarily influenced by light exposure but can be modulated by social schedules, meal times, and genetic factors.
For university students, chronotype matters profoundly. Research conducted before the pandemic consistently showed that evening-type students tended to perform worse academically than their morning-type counterparts. This "eveningness disadvantage" wasn't because night owls were less intelligent, but because traditional university schedules (early morning classes, 8 a.m. exams) conflicted with their biological predispositions.
When we talk about healthy sleep, we often focus exclusively on duration—the magical "8 hours" we're supposed to get each night. But sleep quality encompasses far more than just time spent in bed.
The percentage of time in bed actually spent sleeping
How long it takes to fall asleep
How uninterrupted sleep remains throughout the night
When sleep occurs relative to our natural circadian preferences
How rested and alert we feel during waking hours
The Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), a well-validated scientific tool mentioned in several of our sources, assesses sleep quality across these multiple domains, providing a global score that differentiates "good" from "poor" sleepers. Understanding these distinctions helps explain why someone might spend 8 hours in bed yet still wake feeling unrefreshed—a phenomenon many students recognized all too well during the pandemic's height.
The unprecedented disruption caused by COVID-19 lockdowns created what amounted to a global natural experiment in sleep science. With the elimination of commutes, the flexibility of asynchronous learning, and the reduction of social obligations, students' sleep schedules were largely freed from external constraints, allowing researchers to observe what happened when biological preferences met unprecedented flexibility.
A pivotal 2022 Brazilian study conducted by researchers at the Federal University of Pernambuco provides compelling insights into exactly how the pandemic affected university sleep patterns 7 . The research team investigated the interrelationships between chronotype, sleep quality, and food choices in nutrition students during this unique period.
The researchers employed a cross-sectional, qualitative, and analytical design, collecting data between March and July 2022 from 80 nutrition students. The exclusion of pregnant students and those with severe cognitive deficits helped control for confounding variables. Participants completed a comprehensive battery of online questionnaires assessing:
The research team employed appropriate statistical analyses, including Chi-square and Fisher's exact tests, adopting a significance level of 5% to distinguish meaningful patterns from random variation.
Key Finding: The significant association between chronotype and sleep disturbance (p=0.049) highlights how evening types struggled disproportionately with sleep quality during the pandemic 7 .
40.3% with healthy food choices
59.7% with inadequate food choices
22.3% with healthy food choices
77.7% with inadequate food choices
Key Finding: The strong link between chronotype and food choices (p<0.001) suggests that our biological timekeeping preferences may influence multiple health behaviors beyond just sleep 7 . A remarkable 77.7% of evening-type students reported inadequate dietary habits during the pandemic.
66.2% of students
Global PSQI score ≤533.8% of students
Global PSQI score >5, indicating significant sleep disturbancesUnderstanding how scientists measure these complex sleep variables helps demystify the research process. The Brazilian study, like much sleep and chronotype research, relied on several well-validated assessment tools:
Primary Function: Determines individual chronotype
Measures: Preference for activity periods, peak productivity times, sleep-wake preferences
Primary Function: Assesses sleep quality and disturbances
Measures: Seven components: subjective quality, latency, duration, efficiency, disturbances, medication use, daytime dysfunction
Primary Function: Evaluates dietary patterns and food choices
Measures: Consumption frequency of specific food groups, nutrient intake patterns
Primary Function: Captures background variables
Measures: Age, gender, socioeconomic status, living arrangements, academic load
These tools, when used in combination, allow researchers to build multidimensional pictures of how sleep, biological predispositions, and lifestyle factors interact—especially during disruptive events like the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Brazilian study's finding connecting chronotype to food choices highlights a crucial aspect of sleep science: sleep doesn't exist in isolation. Our sleep patterns influence and are influenced by multiple aspects of our lives. During the pandemic, this interconnectedness became especially apparent.
The research found that 63.75% of participants had inadequate eating habits during the pandemic period, with evening types being particularly vulnerable to poor dietary choices 7 . This correlation suggests that chronotype-appropriate scheduling of activities—including meals—might support healthier behaviors overall.
With 33.8% of students classified as having significant sleep disturbances 7 , the findings point to a substantial proportion of the student population potentially experiencing the cognitive, emotional, and physical consequences of poor sleep quality—including impaired learning, reduced immunity, and increased mental health challenges.
The COVID-19 pandemic inadvertently provided valuable insights into the complex relationships between chronotype, sleep quality, and overall health behaviors in university students. The evidence suggests that rather than forcing all students into identical schedules, we might support student well-being by developing greater chronotype awareness and creating more flexible academic structures that accommodate biological diversity.
For students reflecting on their pandemic sleep experiences, the research offers both validation and direction. If you discovered you were naturally more productive in the evening during remote learning, that realization might help you craft a more effective schedule now. If you noticed your diet suffered alongside your sleep, you might consider how these domains influence each other in your daily life.
As we navigate the post-pandemic landscape, the lessons learned during this extraordinary period can inform healthier approaches to sleep—not through rigid, one-size-fits-all rules, but through personalized schedules that respect our biological diversity while supporting our academic and personal goals. The pandemic disrupted our sleep, but it also offered an unprecedented opportunity to understand it better—an opportunity we can use to build more restful, productive futures.