A survey of people who had been diagnosed with Covid-19 but had never been hospitalized found that 76% experienced insomniawith those who were anxious or depressed being more vulnerable.

The connection of insomnia with patients hospitalized with Covid-19 is already known, but a team of scientists investigated whether mild infections they could also affect sleep quality.

In the study published in the journal “Frontiers in Public Health”, studied data on 1,056 people over the age of 18 in Vietnam who had been diagnosed with Covid-19 but had not been hospitalized in the past six months and reported no history of insomnia or psychiatric illness.

76% of participants reported experiencing insomnia and 22.8% of them that they had severe insomnia. Half of the participants said they woke up more often during the night, while a third said they had trouble falling asleep, slept worse, and slept for less time. The severity of the initial infection did not appear to correlate with the severity of insomnia they experienced. Although asymptomatic patients with Covid-19 scored lower on the insomnia index, the difference was not statistically significant.

Two groups of people had statistically significantly higher rates of insomnia, compared to the rest: those who had a pre-existing chronic condition and those who were experiencing depressive or anxiety symptoms.

The scientists also found that the rate of insomnia reported by patients is not only much higher than that of the general population, but also higher than that reported for patients hospitalized with Covid-19. This could be partly because they focused on recently recovered patients who may have lingering symptoms. Patients who have recently recovered may also be more stressed and sensitive to changes in their physical health, so they perceive their sleep as worse.

*The scientific publication