Onsite versus home-office: differences in sleep patterns according to workplace

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to evaluate the sleep patterns of students and employees working onsite versus those working from home during the COVID-19 pandemic using actigraphy. METHODS: A total of 75 students/employees (onsite: N = 40, home-office: N = 35; age range: 19–56 years; 32% male; 42.7% students, 49.3% employees) were studied between December 2020 and January 2022 using actigraphy, a sleep diary, and an online questionnaire assessing sociodemographics and morningness–eveningness. Independent-sample t-tests, paired-sample tests, and a multivariate general linear model adjusting for age (fixed factors: sex and work environment) were applied. RESULTS: Overall, onsite workers had significantly earlier rise times (7:05 [SD: 1:11] versus 7:44 [1:08] hours) and midpoints of sleep (2:57 [0:58] versus 3:33 [0:58] hours) on weekdays compared to home-office workers. Sleep efficiency, sleep duration, variability of sleep timing, and social jetlag did not differ between the groups. DISCUSSION: Home-office workers showed a delay in sleep timing that did not affect any other sleep parameters such as sleep efficiency or nighttime sleep duration. The work environment had only marginal impact on sleep patterns and thus sleep health in this sample. Sleep timing variability did not differ between groups. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version of this article (10.1007/s11818-023-00408-5) contains supplementary material 1 and 2, which is available to authorized users.