Last summer, the AASM confirmed what many of us suspected: the stress and discomfort of the pandemic was causing insomnia across the country. The July 2020 survey of 2,007 American adults found that about a third of people said COVID-19 made their sleep worse.

To see how sleep patterns had changed over the past year, the AASM conducted the same survey again in March. The results were counter-intuitive: Despite the advances in the fight against the pandemic, our sleep seemed to be getting worse, not better. In this follow-up survey, 56% of Americans reported having trouble sleeping due to COVID. Men, people ages 35 to 44, and people who live in the Northeast were the most likely to report “COVID somnie”.

“A lot of people thought our sleep should get better because we can see the light at the end of the tunnel – but it’s worse now than it was last year,” said Fariha Abbasi-Feinberg, MD, sleep medicine specialist and spokeswoman for the American Academy of Sleep Medicine said the New York Times these new numbers.

This paradox makes more sense when you consider the triggers of COVID somnia – many of which are still very much present. For example, millions of people still work from home and sleep later due to the lack of commuting, which can mess up their sleep patterns. Looser schedules also mean more variations in bedtime and wake up time, another potential threat to sleep quality. It is reasonable to assume that even those who work from home will still go outside and move their bodies less than they did in pre-pandemic times. And as social calendars fill up again, alcohol consumption – a major sleep disturbance – is rising again. After all, the ongoing pandemic fear in the US and abroad could continue to keep people up at night.

Source link