Sleep Disturbance Common After COVID-19 Hospitalization

MONDAY, April 17, 2023 (HealthDay News) — Many adults have sleep disturbance after discharge following hospital admission for COVID-19, with associations seen between sleep disturbance and dyspnea, according to a study published online April 15 in The Lancet Respiratory Medicine.

Callum Jackson, from the University of Manchester in the United Kingdom, and colleagues examined the prevalence and nature of sleep disturbance after discharge following hospital admission for COVID-19. Participants were recruited from the Post-hospitalization COVID-19 Study; follow-up data were collected at an early time point two to seven months after hospital discharge and at a later time point 10 to 14 months after discharge.

The researchers found that 62 percent of 638 participants who had been admitted to the hospital for COVID-19 reported poor sleep quality in response to the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index questionnaire after discharge. A comparable proportion (53 percent of 638) felt that their sleep quality had deteriorated after discharge. Compared with recently hospitalized matched participants from the U.K. Biobank cohort, participants in the study cohort slept an average of 65 minutes longer, had a lower sleep regularity index (−19 percent), and had lower sleep efficiency (3.83 percent). Associations were seen for overall sleep quality, deterioration in sleep quality following hospital admission, and sleep regularity with higher dyspnea scores. Anxiety and muscle weakness mediated 18 to 39 and 27 to 41 percent, respectively, of the effect of sleep disturbance on dyspnea, depending on the sleep metric.

“Interventions targeting poor sleep quality might be used to manage symptoms and convalescence following COVID-19 hospitalization, potentially improving patient outcomes,” a coauthor said in a statement.

Several authors disclosed financial ties to the biopharmaceutical industry.