"Often you do have a disruption to your normal rhythms of life, so people might be sleeping in, watching screens a little more in the evenings, or having afternoon naps," she says. In addition to the illness itself, Dr Rees says changes to regular routines during the isolation and recovery periods can also put people's sleep routines out of whack.
"If you wake up with chest pain, it's pretty hard to go back to sleep."Įven for people whose physical symptoms have resolved, they may still feel afraid to fall asleep weeks or months later, worried they will struggle to breath. "Predominantly, they make you more fatigued or wanting to sleep at different times, but they can also upset your natural rhythms." "There's likely to be, to some extent, a direct viral effect - so viruses cause a lot of inflammation in the body, and those inflammatory chemicals as they circulate can disrupt sleep," she says. The cause is likely to be "multifactorial", Dr Rees says, meaning there's usually several factors involved. What triggers sleep problems following COVID-19?
#Not getting deep sleep symptoms how to#
Heading to the Ekka? Here's how to avoid getting COVID or the flu."People aren't always finding it easy to be awake at the time they usually like to be awake, and have difficulty being asleep at the time they want to be asleep." Read more about the spread of COVID-19: "In addition to that, there is what we call 'phase delay' or a disruption to your natural circadian rhythm. "There seems to be a bit of insomnia, so difficulty being able to sleep at the time that you want, but also feeling tired and wanting to sleep during the daytime," she says. When it comes to sleep disturbances, Dr Rees says people recently recovering from COVID-19 - and those diagnosed with long COVID - experience "a mixture of problems". "There certainly appears to be an increase in sleep disorders in patients both during the early recovery - just a few weeks after they've had COVID - and also in those who have more persistent symptoms long-term." Sleep disturbances are a well-documented symptom of long COVID, which is generally regarded as the persistence (or emergence) of symptoms at least three months after a SARS-CoV-2 infection.īut respiratory and sleep physician Megan Rees says people can also experience sleep problems during the acute phase of a COVID-19 infection and in the weeks and months that follow. While most people with a mild or moderate case of COVID-19 recover within about two weeks, others experience lingering symptoms, such as fatigue and shortness of breath. "But there's just this little voice in the back of my head that's like, 'Jeez, it would be nice to get a solid sleep one of these days'." Sleep disturbances seen in post-COVID patients "I feel very grateful that I have a job that I can largely do from home," Jen says. "I try strategies to get back to sleep, knowing that I've got work the next day and I'm feeling really tired … but I just really struggle, it's very frustrating."Įarly mornings, which used to be the most productive part of her day, are now noticeably slower, on account of feeling "dozy". She struggles to get back to sleep and stay asleep for more than an hour, before abruptly waking again - a cycle that repeats itself throughout the night. Jen says she's able to fall asleep reasonably quickly, but often finds herself awake two hours later. "But even since I've stopped coughing, I've noticed this very, very interrupted sleep pattern." "In the early days, the cause was obvious - I couldn't stop coughing," she says. Six weeks later, the Melbourne-based academic still feels pretty average, dealing with regular headaches, daily fatigue, and disrupted sleep. For someone who is fully vaccinated and "pretty fit", Dr Jen Martin was surprised by how much COVID-19 affected her.