According to one study, long Covid patients are more prone to experience sleep difficulties.
Cleveland Clinic researchers discovered that 41% of individuals on extended Covid experienced moderate or severe sleep problems.
The study, published in the Journal of General Internal Medicine, also revealed risk variables for moderate to severe sleep problems, including as race, hospitalisation for Covid-19, increased anxiety intensity, and exhaustion.
“Sleep difficulties and fatigue are widely reported by people with long Covid but little is known about the severity and factors associated with these symptoms,” said lead author Cynthia Pena Orbea, Assistant professor of medicine at Cleveland Clinic’s Sleep Disorders Centre.
Between February 2021 and April 2022, the researchers examined data from 962 adult patients with extended Covid, also termed clinically as post-acute sequelae of Covid-19 (PASC).
The patients had recovered from Covid-19 and had completed the Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System sleep disturbance and tiredness questionnaires.
More than two-thirds (67.2%) of patients experienced moderate to severe fatigue, with 21.8% reporting severe exhaustion.
More over half of the patients (58%) reported normal to mild sleep abnormalities, whereas 41.3% reported moderate to severe sleep problems.
“Our findings not only emphasise the importance of identification of sleep disturbance in long Covid considering its impact on patients’ quality of life, daytime functioning and medical health status but they also draw the attention to the persistent inequities seen throughout the Covid-19 pandemic,” said Dr. Pena Orbea.
The researchers said there is an unmet need to understand the neurobiological mechanisms or pathways behind the association of sleep disturbances with long Covid.
