Major political events can have dramatic effects on Sleepsand alcohol consumption and the emotional well-being of people around the world, according to a new study.
Researchers, including researchers from the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in the US, have evaluated the relationship between highly anticipated events, such as a major election, and people’s sleep and sleep. Psychological health.
Their findings were recently published in the journal National Sleep Foundation sleep healthprovides evidence of the conventional wisdom that contentious political events can negatively affect a wide range of mood-related factors such as sleep and alcohol consumption.
“These findings are unlikely to come as a shock to many given the political turmoil of the past several years,” study author Tony Cunningham said in a statement.
Dr Cunningham said: “Our results likely reflect many of our own experiences surrounding highly stressful events, and we felt this was an opportunity to scientifically validate these assumptions.”
In the study, scientists surveyed 437 US and 106 international participants daily between October 1-13, 2020 (before the US election) and October 30-November 12, 2020 – the days around the election.
Participants reported the duration and quality of their sleep, alcohol consumption, as well as their personal experience of general stress.
The researchers asked participants to rate the previous night’s sleep by recording their sleep times, time needed to fall asleep, number of awakenings during the night, and time of morning awakening.
Participants also reported the time they naps during the day as well as their alcohol consumption the night before.
Their responses indicated decreased sleep quantity and efficiency, increased stress, negative mood as well as alcohol intake in the peri-election period.
While the researchers found deteriorating health habits significantly associated with mood and stress among US residents during this period, they say these effects were observed at a lower level in participants from outside the US.
While both US and non-US participants reported losing sleep in the run-up to the election, those in America had significantly less time in bed in the days following the election.
Participants reported that they woke up frequently during election night and had poor sleep efficiency.
The study found that those who reported drinking alcohol significantly increased their consumption over the three days during the evaluation period – Halloween, Election Day and the day more media called for elections.
The researchers also found significant links between these changes and sleep, drinking, stress, negative moods, and depression.
While there was no change in alcohol consumption during the November assessment period among non-US participants, the researchers reported a sharp rise in reported stress for both groups in the days leading up to the November 3 elections.
“This is the first study to find that there is an association between previously reported changes in election day mood and election night sleep,” said Dr. Cunningham.
“If the relationship between sleep and elections is also bidirectional, then it will be important for future research to determine how mood and stress influence pre-election sleep, or even alter its outcome,” he added.
Since the elections were held amid the Covid-19 pandemic, researchers have called for more studies with more representative and diverse samples to confirm the exclusive effects of political stress on the general mood and sleep of the general public.
“These findings suggest that major social and political events can have global effects on sleep that may interact with significant fluctuations in general mood and well-being,” they wrote in the study.
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