Sleep & COVID-19

The findings were presented at SLEEP 2022: 36th Annual Meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies. Pena and colleagues analyzed data on 962 patients with PASC seen at the Cleveland Clinic ReCOVer Clinic between February 2021 and April 2022. More than two thirds of patients (67.2%) reported at least moderate fatigue, while 21.8% reported severe fatigue, Pena reported.

In addition, 41.3% reported at least moderate sleep disturbances, while 8% of patients reported severe sleep disturbances, including insomnia, “which may impair quality of life,” Pena said.

Obesity, mood disorders, and Black race emerged as contributors to problems with sleep and fatigue after COVID. Notably, after adjusting for demographics, Black race conferred threefold higher odds of moderate to severe sleep disturbances. “We don’t know why this is, and one of our next steps is to better understand race-specific determinants of sleep disturbances after COVID and create targeted interventions,” Pena said. How long after COVID the fatigue and sleep problems last “remains uncertain,” Pena acknowledged. However, she added, in her clinical experience with therapy, patients’ sleep and fatigue may improve after 6 or 8 months.

Ruth Benca, MD, PhD, co-chair of the Alliance for Sleep, is not surprised by the Cleveland Clinic findings. “Sleep disturbances and fatigue are part of the sequelae of COVID,” Benca, who was not involved in the study, told Medscape Medical News. “We know that people who have had COVID have more trouble sleeping afterwards. There is the COVID insomnia created in all of us just out of our worries, fears, isolation, and stress. And then there’s an actual impact of having the infection itself on worsening sleep,” said Benca, with Wake Forest University School of Medicine and Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist, Winston-Salem, North Carolina. The study had no specific funding. The authors have disclosed no relevant financial relationships. Benca is a consultant for Idorsia Pharmaceuticals. SLEEP 2022: 36th Annual Meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies: Abstract 0735. Presented June 6, 2022.