Mild cases of Covid linked to insomnia, study suggests

SUFFERING with insomnia has been linked to experiencing mild cases of Covid for the first time, scientists have said.

Three in four people who had mild Covid-19 infections developed insomnia, according to research.

A survey of people who were diagnosed with Covid but never hospitalised found that 76.1 per cent of them developed insomnia. It also found that people already suffering from anxiety or depression were more vulnerable.

Scientists already knew insomnia was common in patients in hospital, but this research from Phenikaa University, in Vietnam, is the first to study sleep habits of those with mild infections. Dr Huong Hoang, the lead author, said: “As a sleep researcher, I received many questions and complaints from relatives, friends and colleagues about their sleep disturbances after recovering from Covid-19.”

To obtain the results, published in the journal Frontiers in Public Health, the team recruited 1,056 people over the age of 18 who had been diagnosed with Covid but not admitted to hospital in the past six months, and who reported no history of insomnia or psychiatric conditions. They found of the 76.1 per cent of participants who reported experiencing insomnia, 22.8 per cent said it was severe. Half said they woke more often in the night, while a third said they found it harder to fall asleep, slept worse or for less time.

There was no significant link between the severity of their infections and the severity of insomnia. Two groups of people did have statistically significant higher rates of insomnia. These were people with a pre-existing chronic condition who scored highly for depression or anxiety.

‘I received many questions from relatives, friends and colleagues about sleep disturbances after Covid’