Insomnia due to the coronavirus: the phenomenon that is preventing us from sleeping during the pandemic | The State

Many studies have shown that increases the chances of making mistakes, it ruins your concentration, increases reaction times, and affects your mood.

The fact that many of us experience insomnia is due to the current configuration of difficult, “almost biblical” circumstances, says Dr. Steven Altchuler, a psychiatrist and neurologist who specializes in sleep medicine at the Mayo Clinic, one of the organizations largest medical research centers in the US

“If you have insomnia, you are not the only one. Much of the world suffers from it too. It is a consequence of all the changes we are experiencing with COVID, “he says.

There are multiple factors at play. First, our daily routines and environments have been disrupted, making it difficult to keep our circadian rhythm intact.

Normally, our days are carried out on a schedule of wake-ups, commutes, breaks, and sleeping hours, but the coronavirus has changed all that.

“We lost a lot of the external cues that are present at office meetings or scheduled lunch breaks,” says Altchuler.

“What you are doing [con el trabajo remoto] is to interrupt the clock of your body ”.

“Your brain is conditioned: whenever you are at your workplace you are working, and then when you are at home, you are relaxing. There is a differentiation there. Now, we’re all at home all the time, “says Angela Drake, a clinical health professor at the University of California Davis, who treats patients with sleep disorders and who has written about” coronasomnia. “

It also points to the fact that when we work from home, we can get less exercise and potentially less exposure to natural light, both of which contribute to better sleep.

As well there is the question of job performance.

Many countries have the highest unemployment in years, so it is not surprising that those who are employed want to work hard to keep their jobs.

The problem is that working from home can blur the lines that used to be marked, with many people reporting that they work longer or irregular hours.

“We tend to have much less clear boundaries between home and work,” says Altchuler. “People tend to stay up later.”

For many of us, leaving “work at work” is now completely impossible, and disconnecting from to-do lists and the daily stress of the workday is more difficult than ever.

Add to that the fact that we miss our hobbies and friends, vital channels of relaxation and stress relief.

Many of us are experiencing mental health problems, which can contribute to sleep problems or vice versa.

Our general sense of uncertainty and lack of control can also fuel sleep problems.

Additionally, the longevity of the pandemic is also a factor. What began as a period of “sheltering” to play video games and store toilet paper has turned into a lifelong panorama that feels semi-permanent.

“In the beginning, people tended to be motivated to overcome stress [de la pandemia]. But as it continues, most people become less able to cope, leading to more problems, including insomnia, ”says Drake.

Some sleep problems they will have become “chronic and long-lasting”, he adds, because the pandemic has in some cases caused delays in obtaining treatment.

This is because people have only sought medical care in emergencies, while some healthcare facilities have been short-staffed or overwhelmed with COVID-19 patients.

In fact, healthcare workers have been particularly affected by insomnia during the past 12 months.

In December, the University of Ottawa analyzed 55 global studies of more than 190,000 participants to measure the relevance of insomnia, depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) since the beginning of the pandemic.

All disorders increased by at least 15% among healthcare workers, with insomnia registering the largest increase, almost 24%.

Altchuler notes that insomnia is “commonly associated with post-traumatic stress disorder” and whether you are a front-line healthcare worker or not, it is common for insomnia to increase after large, negative world events.

In general, any time someone experiences trauma, whether it’s a general health emergency like COVID-19, a public disaster like September 11, or something more individual like a car accident, they may experience persistent sleep problems that accompany PTSD. .

How to solve it

Experts say it’s important to seek help when sleeping problems persist, especially these days.

“Given that the pandemic has continued for a significant period of time, not just a couple of months, there is a high possibility that insomnia rates will not decrease,” says Lisa Artis, Deputy Executive Director of Sleep Charity in the UK.

“Because if people don’t seek help when they start to suffer with sleep, their sleep problems are likely to turn into a sleep disorder, that is, insomnia, and unfortunately there is no quick fix… It is difficult to break habits that have been formed ”.

But there is good news. Twelve months after the pandemic, some experts believe that it has led to advances in the treatment of sleep disorders.

Altchuler points to the “rapid expansion of telemedicine: virtual medicine and virtual visits” linked to quarantine and our inability or reluctance to visit medical facilities in person.

The most common treatment for sleep problems is cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (known as CBT-I), which improves your “sleep hygiene” (not smoking or drinking before bed, for example) and trains your brain to associate bed with sleep only with behavioral changes (not working in bed).

A University of Michigan study last year showed that patients who sought CBT-I through telemedicine received as effective treatment as they would have received in person, which could provide better access to care.

There are also things that people can do to try to address the problem.

“One of my great rules is that you can’t work on your laptop in bed ”, says Drake. “I don’t care how comfortable it is.”

“Eventually, the brain associates work with the bed, it is a kind of reinforcement.”

Also limit your consumption of news to avoid anxiety that keeps you awake at night, do not use your phone as an alarm clock (another element associated with work, in addition to the fact that the “blue light” emitted by devices is bad for your sleep ) and turn the clock on your nightstand so you don’t stress yourself out while trying to fall asleep.

And remember, these circumstances are far from ordinary, so it is not surprising that we are facing challenges.

“The last time there was this type of event was over 100 years ago,” says Drake. “This is not something any of us have experienced before.”

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