Is Insomnia a Symptom of Covid?
It’s no surprise that when Covid first hit, the stress and anxiety of lockdown alongside an increase in uncertainties and health issues caused many people to experience poor sleep.
In fact, it was such a common complaint at the time, one study even showed the number of Brits suffering sleep loss caused by worrying rose from one in six, to one in four. And now, two years on, it seems so many people are still suffering with poor sleep as a result that it’s even been given a name, “coronasomnia.”
But why are so many of us suffering? There’s been a wealth of research conducted into the phenomenon of “coronasomnia”, all coming to an array of conclusions, but key outtakes show some clear patterns.
Broken routine plays a huge part in contributing to the issue. While many of us once had a set routine and clear divide between work and home-life, set get-up times and stricter bedtimes, the pandemic has caused our lives to become more fluid. All this change in routine has caused our circadian rhythms to become disjointed and out of sync, which of course plays a bit part in contributing to poor sleep.
Secondly, life has become far less varied. Yes, things are moving more toward a normal routine at the moment, but they’re not quite the same. For example, while schools are back in-person and many leisure venues, such as cinemas, are open once again, many events are still being held virtually and many people have remained working from home. What’s more, the rules for various venues are incredibly mixed – to mask or not to mask?!
We need variation in our lives to keep us stimulated, and the current nature of life, which has become far less spontaneous, and far more rigid doesn’t offer us quite the same level of stimulation. This, again, can contribute to poor sleep.
Finally, much like classic insomnia, “coronasomnia” can become a vicious circle, where we perpetuate patterns that contribute to poor sleep. For example, poor sleep can leave us feeling depressed and run down, which can in turn contribute to ill health and make us more susceptible to picking up viruses. What’s more, the stress and at-home lifestyle caused by the pandemic has reportedly resulted in us drinking more as a nation. Drinking alcohol can also contribute to poor sleep, and again cause us to be more likely to develop irregular sleeping patterns and insomnia.
In short, it’s no surprise many of us have found our sleep suffering since the pandemic began. However, the important thing is not to panic. There are steps you can take to get your sleep back on track, and we are here to help!
My top tips for improving your sleep.
1. Get back in a routine – To resume a routine, even if you’ve sleep badly, you should still get up nice and early. This will help you to build an ‘appetite’ for sleep, helping you get a better night’s sleep the next night. Setting an alarm will help you get your structure back on track, which in turn will help you sleep well by ensuring you have a strong sleep drive.
2. Get your work-life balance back – If you’re still working from home, make sure you have an end time to your working day and take an action to signify this. For example, go for a walk or do some exercise when your working day ends. Usually, a commute would work for this, but you need to find a way to help your body and mind distinguish the end of work and the start of your ‘me-time’.
3. Get up if you can’t sleep – If you’re struggling to sleep, get up! This will help to avoid building a negative link with bed and sleep. If you can’t drift back off to sleep when you wake, simply get up and go to another room, read a book or do something you enjoy, and then when you’re feeling sleepy again, head back to bed.
4. Manage anxiety – Anxiety is exhausting, so if you’re feeling tired it’s important to note that it is not just lack of sleep which makes us tired and affects our daytime functioning, but also our negative thoughts about lack of sleep and stress in general. I advise you to spend time writing down your negative thoughts, challenging them, then letting them go. Worrying about sleep won’t improve it but it will make you feel worse. If you wake up and begin your day with a negative sleep thought such as ‘the day is going to be miserable because I did not sleep well’, it is the combination of sleep loss and negative mood from this thought that then negatively impacts your daytime functioning.
5. Don’t stress – Practicing relaxation techniques and mindfulness during the daytime will help you learn to regularly rest your mind and help combat stress. Using this time to relax and spend some time on yourself will help you to feel more refreshed, even if you are struggling to sleep well.
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