Flu spikes in Indian Kashmir as COVID-19 measures lift.Five things to know about Long Covid and chronic fatigue syndrome.COVID in 2023 and beyond – why virus trends are more difficult to predict three years on.This can be caused by worries about recovery, loneliness or social isolation. There’s a strong link between catching COVID and mental health issues, particularly depression and anxiety. Poor mental health can lead to sleep problems and vice versa. These are also well known to disturb sleep. Typical symptoms of COVID include fever, coughing and breathing difficulties. We don’t yet have a clear understanding of how this works, but possible mechanisms could include the virus infecting the central nervous system or affecting the brain’s blood supply. One review identified physiological, psychological and environmental factors.ĬOVID can have a direct impact on the brain, including the areas that control both wake and sleep states. There are many reasons why a COVID infection might lead to poor sleep. The fact COVID often interferes with sleep is also worrying because sleep helps our immune system to fight infections. Lack of deep sleep may be partly responsible for the commonly reported “brain fog” during and after COVID. Loss of deep sleep is particularly concerning, as this type of sleep reduces how tired we feel and strengthens concentration and memory. Participants with long COVID slept less overall and got less deep sleep than participants who had never had COVID. Almost 80% of participants self-reported sleep problems, most commonly insomnia.Ī more recent study collected data on both sleep duration and quality using smart wristbands. People suffering from long COVID seem very likely to face persistent sleep problems.Ī 2021 study surveyed more than 3,000 people with long COVID. While most people recover from COVID quickly, some continue to have symptoms in the longer term. A study in China found that 26% of people who were admitted to hospital with COVID showed symptoms of insomnia two weeks after discharge.Īnd a US study showed that people who had been infected with COVID were more likely than people who had never been infected to have trouble sleeping, even up to a month after a positive COVID test. Worryingly, sleep problems sometimes persist even after recovery from the infection. People with insomnia typically find it difficult to fall asleep or stay asleep, and often wake up early in the mornings. The most common type of sleep disturbance reported is insomnia. The most recent meta-analysis, a review of all the currently available scientific literature, estimates that 52% of people who contract COVID suffer from sleep disturbances during the infection. Now a second wave of data is beginning to explain how becoming infected with COVID is affecting our sleep and even intruding into our dreams. The main finding was that we slept more in lockdown but the quality of our sleep was worse. In the early stage of the pandemic, sleep scientists charted the costs and benefits of lockdowns on sleep patterns. With the true number likely much higher, and the tally increasing by hundreds of thousands every week, the scientific community has been focused on understanding the impact of COVID on our physical health, mental health and brain function. By the end of 2022, more than 650 million COVID infections had been reported to the World Health Organization.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |