Insomnia, anxiety, and depression were ‘very prevalent’ during the first wave of the Covid-19 pandemic, an international study has suggested.
The study, led by Professor Colin Espie from the Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences at the University of Oxford and Professor Charles Morin, from the Department of Psychology at Laval University in Canada and published in the journal Sleep Medicine, highlighted common stressors as having been health concerns, social isolation, financial hardship, home-schooling, and uncertainty about the future as all playing a part.
They have argued public health interventions need to be put in place to reduce the long-term adverse outcomes associated with chronic insomnia and mental health problems.
This study, launched in June last year, assessed the prevalence of clinical cases of insomnia, anxiety, and depression and selected risk factors (Covid-19, confinement, financial burden, social isolation) during the first wave of the pandemic from May to August 2020.
More than 22,000 adults from 13 countries across four continents completed a web-based survey about their sleep and psychological symptoms.
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Over a third reported clinical insomnia symptoms, and almost a fifth met criteria for a probable insomnia disorder.
More than a quarter of participants had probable anxiety and almost a quarter probable depression, the researchers concluded.
Risks of insomnia were higher among participants who reported having had Covid-19, who reported greater financial burden, were in confinement for a period of four to five weeks, and living alone or with more than five people in same household.
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Professor Espie said: “Health authorities must deploy sleep and mental health prevention programmes, as well as clinical interventions to assist at-risk individuals and reduce long-term adverse health outcomes.
“Research shows that when you treat insomnia, you often not only see improvements in sleep, but reductions in anxiety and depressive symptoms, and improvement in mental health and wellbeing. This study provides further evidence of the impact of sleep on mental health and how we can begin addressing the mental health crisis through evidenced-based insomnia interventions.”
