LAUSR

Abstract Introduction We aimed to analyze the changes in depression, sleepiness, insomnia, and sleep habits in relation to the degree of self-isolation due to COVID-19 pandemic. A state of emergency was declared for the whole of Japan on 7 April 2020. People in Shiga prefecture were recommended to stay at home and refrain from moving to other prefectures from 8 April to 31 May 2020. Methods We enrolled 54 patients who regularly visited the sleep outpatient clinic in Shiga University of Medical Science Hospital, Japan. We compared the sleep habits, depression (Patient Health Questionnaire-9: PHQ-9), insomnia (Athens Insomnia Scale: AIS), and sleepiness (Epworth Sleepiness Scale: ESS) of patients, one year before (from April to July 2019), during (May 2020) and six months after (Nov 2020) the self-isolation period due to the COVID-19. We conducted repeated measures ANOVA to examine changes. Results PHQ-9 (3.89±0.64, 3.65±0.62 and 3.52±0.66: p=0.410), AIS (4.78±0.59, 4.65±0.57 and 4.63±0.57: p=0.843) and ESS (7.93±0.76, 7.07±0.68 and 7.00±0.73: p=0.088) were not significantly different among three visits. Sleep duration (6.06±0.23hr, 6.29±0.19hr and 6.16±0.22hr: p=0.248) and sleep onset latency (24.8±5.55min, 19.2±3.97min and 21.0±4.85min: p=0.445) were also not significantly different. Conclusion Self-isolation due to COVID-19 was not associated with changes in depression, sleepiness, and insomnia among patients for sleep outpatient units in in Shiga prefecture, Japan. Support (if any) The present study was supported by MEXT/JSPS (KAKENHI Grant Number: 17H00872).