ABSTRACT
Introduction: In November 2019, in China, an outbreak of a disease caused by the new coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) has begun. The spread of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) to hundreds of countries, causing respiratory illness and death, especially in risk groups, led the World Health Organization to declare a pandemic in March 2020. For patient's management, an extensive network of multidisciplinary care is necessary, exposing them to a greater contamination risk. Objective: This study aims to describe the prevalence of sleep disorders on health professionals who care for patients with suspicion/ confirmation of COVID-19. Methods: This is a crosssectional study, carried out using an online form sent to health professionals, with higher education, of both genders, aged 18 years or more, from any city in Brazil. Data collection took place from August to December 2020 (epidemiological weeks 32 to 53). The participants were asked about the frequency of several sleep disorders, sociodemographic, health and lifestyle characteristics. Subsequently, descriptive statistics were performed. The study protocol was approved by the National Research Ethics Committee (CONEP) under opinion 4.073.427. Results: The sample consisted of 184 health professionals with an average age of 37 (±9,3) years, predominantly female (69,9%), physicians (48,4%), living in Rio Grande do Sul (77,7%), graduated in the last 10 years (53,3%), working in the morning (83,1%), afternoon (82,6%) and night (32,1%), who have non-transferable chronic diseases (25,5%), consume alcoholic beverages (54,9%) and practice physical activities (57,6%). Regarding sleep disorders, participants presented tiredness on waking up (88,6%), waking up at night (82,1%), excessive daytime sleepiness (73,4%), nightmares (69,6%), difficulty in starting sleep (69%), waking up too early and not being able to go back to sleep (63,6%), grinding or clenching teeth during sleep (59,2%), snoring (58,7%), sleep apnea (13%) and sleepwalking (8,7%). 74,5% of participants had 5 or more symptoms simultaneously. Conclusion: The results demonstrate a high number of symptoms of sleep disorders in the sample, especially tiredness on waking up and night awaking, as well as a high number of health professionals with 5 or more associated symptoms. The data are of concern, as they affect the performance of these professionals, which may expose them and the patients to greater risks.