Pleasure to Nap, Good Mood to Live: Perception about Naps and the Mood of College Students during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Keywords

sleep - mood - pandemic - anxiety - depression

Introduction: Society's habits were modified during the COVID-19 pandemic, increasing the free time of some individuals, such as college students. Reducing face-to-face obligations has facilitated the possibility of intentionally napping during the day, but little is known about the influence of such habits on mood during the pandemic.

Aim: To investigate whether the napping habit is associated with anxiety, depression and stress symptoms in college students during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Methods: Study performed in 2020 with 291 college students from northeastern Brazil, of both sexes, between 18 and 33 years old. The following were used in the research: electronic form with questions about the napping habit and perception, State-Trait Anxiety Inventory to investigate anxious symptoms, Beck Depression Inventory to verify depressive symptoms and the Perception Stress Scale to verify the stress perception. The groups were delineated according to the “yes” and “no” answers to the questions about napping, as well as according to the “pleasure,” “need” or “another reason” for napping. For statistical analysis, the Kolmogorov-Smirnov normality test, Mann-Whitney test and Kruskal-Wallis test, followed by Dunn's post-hoc test were applied, with a significance of p < 0.05. The study was approved by the Ethics Committee under protocol: 32360720.4.0000.5208.

Results: The age verified was 21.7 ± 2.8 years old, with a predominance of females (70.4%). 52.2% of college students had the napping habit, but there was no difference in mood between individuals who napped or not (p > 0.05). Among college students who napped, there were lower symptoms of trait (47.3 ± 12.7) and state (48.4 ± 12.6) of anxiety, as well as lower symptoms of depression (12.5 ± 8.5) and stress perception (21.2 ± 6.9) among individuals who napped intentionally (p < 0.05). As for the napping perception, college students who judged it as pleasure had lower symptoms of trait (48.2 ± 11.1) and state (48.5 ± 10.9) of anxiety and depression (12.8 ± 8.0) when compared with individuals who thought it was an act of necessity (p < 0.05).

Conclusions: College students who napped intentionally and for pleasure during the COVID-19 pandemic had lower symptoms of anxiety, depression and perceived stress.

Acknowledgment:

This study was financed in part by the Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior - Brazil (CAPES) - Finance Code 001.

No conflict of interest has been declared by the author(s).

Publication History

Article published online:
15 June 2023