Changes in health promoting behavior during COVID-19 physical distancing: Utilizing WHOOP data to Examine Trends in Sleep, Activity, and Cardiovascular Health. (preprint)

ABSTRACT

The COVID-19 pandemic incited global and unprecedented restrictions on the behavior of society. The aims of this study were to quantify changes to sleep/wake behavior and exercise patterns (e.g., exercise frequency, modality, and intensity), and the subsequent impact on physiological markers of health (e.g., total sleep duration, social jet lag, resting heart rate, and heart rate variability) with the introduction of physical distancing mandates and recommendations. A retrospective analysis of 50,000 subscribers to the WHOOP platform (mean age = 36.6 {+/-} 10.5; 11,956 females, 38,044 males) was conducted covering the period from January 1st, 2020 through May 15th, 2020. In order to make robust comparisons, this time period was separated into a 68 day baseline period and a 67 day physical distancing period - with a total of 6.3 million sleeps and 4.9 million exercise sessions analyzed. As compared to baseline, during physical distancing, all subjects analyzed in this study dedicated more time to sleep (+0.21 hours), fell asleep earlier (-0.43 hours), woke up earlier (-0.29 hours), obtained more sleep (+0.19 hours) and reduced social jet lag (-0.23 hours). Subjects also increased exercise frequency by an average of 1.1% and increased exercise intensity by spending an average of 1.8% more time in the three highest heart rate zones. These changes to sleep and exercise behavior may have contributed to the observed lowered resting heart rate (-0.9 beats per minute) and increased heart rate variability (+1.3 milliseconds) during physical distancing. A potential explanation for these results is that decreases in business hours-based commitments during physical distancing may have resulted in increased opportunity to engage in exercise and prioritize sleep. Therefore, as the COVID-19 pandemic eases, maintenance of certain aspects of physical distancing (e.g., flexibility to work from home) may result in a healthier population.