Cough until it’s hard to breathe. Shivering with chills, sweating with heat. I’m worried about who I sneezed on in the last 3 days. There are many reasons why people with COVID-19 have trouble sleeping.
However, according to some studies, sleep disturbances in patients with coronavirus infection may persist after the acute phase of the illness is over. A survey of people struggling to sleep for too long due to COVID found that many reported so-called ‘sleep disturbances’. The term refers to the problem of drifting into dreamland or staying asleep through the night.
The most well-known of these problems is insomnia. People who suffer from it take a long time to fall asleep, wake up many times during the night, or wake up early in the morning.
Sleep disturbances during and after coronavirus infection
Studies show sleep problems after COVID has been present at the population level. Meta-analysis of 250 studies with over 493,000 participants from 49 countries It was found that 52% of people infected with COVID-19 suffered from sleep disturbances during the infection.
Again, not surprisingly, the information is relevant for COVID patients who lie down at night and are frustrated by not getting sleep when they need it most.
As anyone who’s ever Googled COVID symptoms knows, the words ‘you’re not alone’ can be comforting, even if they don’t help alleviate symptoms. .
It is not only those in the acute phase of the disease who suffer. In a 2022 observational study, US researchers fitted 710 of his study participants with wearable health devices. Respiration and heart rate, oxygen saturation, cardiac variability, etc. were recorded.
Using these variables, 122 long-term COVID patients not only slept less per night, but also slept better than 588 COVID-uninfected control participants. found to be low.
In another study published in the journal e-Clinical Medicine, researchers sent out an online questionnaire to survey 3,762 participants from 56 countries who had suffered from long-term COVID. Between June and November 2020. Nearly 80% of participants reported sleep disturbances, with insomnia being the most frequent.
Whether physiological, psychological, or environmental factors (or a combination thereof) are responsible for sleep deprivation or poor sleep quality varies from patient to patient.
Why is sleep deprivation a problem?
A sleep-deprived night is not an unpleasant experience that makes it difficult to concentrate or even function as a human being the next day. Our bodies also use the time spent in dreamland to regenerate and fight infections. Strengthens the capabilities of the immune system.
Sleep promotes the redistribution of T cells to lymph nodes throughout the body.T cells are white blood cells that play a central role in the immune response, releasing antibodies that kill viral particles.
Furthermore, storing important memories, processing new information, and filtering out superfluous information all occur during sleep. Sleep also prepares the brain to learn new information the next day, says the independent Sleep Foundation. It is run by US researchers and doctors.
Editing: Fred Schwaller
