New research has laid the true toll of the Covid-19 lockdown bare, as it finds Brits are sleeping less, feeling lonelier and spending more time hooked on social media.
Over a third of respondents of an Ipsos survey, particularly women, said they’ve seen a dramatic decline in their physical and mental health.
30 percent say they are lonelier now than before the pandemic, as almost half of adults continue to stay at home more and see their friends and family less.
One in three adults said they are getting fewer hours of sleep and are more disturbed at night.
30 percent of people say they are lonelier now than before the pandemic
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A man going for a walk wearing a mask
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Two years on since the first national lockdown began, many continue to suffer from pandemic pessimism and have seen an increased addiction to their screens.
Of the 1,229 surveyed, one in ten people believes things will never go back to how they were before coronavirus, while 50 percent think the pandemic is not yet over.
Two fifths cannot stop checking social media for Covid-19 news updates.
Research director at Ipsos, Gideon Skinner, said: "These findings, marking the two-year anniversary of the first national lockdown, are further evidence of how life in the UK has changed for many people, affecting a range of aspects of our physical and mental health."
Professor Bobby Duffy, of the Policy Institute at King’s College London, added: "The effects of the pandemic and the measures to control it are still keenly felt by significant proportions of the UK population – with a third of us saying we’re lonelier and sleeping less well, nearly half of us seeing our friends less and leaving home less, and half spending more time on our screens.
"It’s no surprise that a third of us feel our mental or physical health is worse".