Journal of sleep research
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Journal of sleep research · Feb 2021
Caring for the carers: Advice for dealing with sleep problems of hospital staff during the COVID-19 outbreak.
Hospital staff are at the frontline in the COVID-19 outbreak. The stressors they experience may induce sleep problems in a population already at risk. Sleep deprivation, long shifts and insomnia in hospital staff have been associated with individual, organizational and public health hazards. ⋯ In March 2020, the World Health Organization called for providing access to mental health and counselling for health professionals involved in the COVID-19 outbreak. To answer this call, we propose practical advice for the management of sleep problems (sleep deprivation, insomnia and shift work) that can be included in supportive interventions. The advice is based on psychobiological principles of sleep regulation and on guidelines for the treatment of insomnia and was implemented within an initiative offering psychological support to the staff of three university hospitals in Rome.
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Journal of sleep research · Feb 2021
Covid-19 health crisis and lockdown associated with high level of sleep complaints and hypnotic uptake at the population level.
The Covid-19 pandemic has disrupted the habits of billions of people around the world. Lockdown at home is mandatory, forcing many families, each member with their own sleep-wake habits, to spend 24 hr a day together, continuously. Sleep is crucial for maintaining immune systems and contributes deeply to physical and psychological health. ⋯ Unusually, young people (aged 18-34 years) reported sleep problems slightly more frequently than elderly people (79% vs. 72% among those aged 35 or older), with 60% of the younger group reporting that these problems increased with confinement (vs. 51% of their elders). Finally, 16% of participants reported they had taken sleeping pills during the last 12 months, and 41% of them reported using these drugs since the lockdown started. These results suggest that the COVID crisis is associated with severe sleep disorders among the French population, especially young people.