Pre-sleep arousal and sleep quality during the COVID-19 lockdown in Italy.
Sleep Med
; 88: 46-57, 2021 12.
Article
in English
| MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-1525952
ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE:
The COVID-19 pandemic has strongly affected daily habits and psychological wellbeing, and many studies point to large modifications in several sleep and sleep-related domains. Nevertheless, pre-sleep arousal during the pandemic has been substantially overlooked. Since hyperarousal represents one of the main factors for the development and the perpetuation of chronic insomnia disorder, the assessment of variables associated with high levels of pre-sleep arousal during the pandemic is clinically relevant. The study aimed to assess the prevalence and predictors of perceived sleep quality and pre-sleep arousal in an Italian sample during the COVID-19 lockdown.METHODS:
We used an online survey to collect self-reported sociodemographic, environmental, clinical, sleep, and sleep-related data. Our final sample included 761 participants.RESULTS:
Beyond a high frequency of poor sleep quality, depressive and stress symptoms, our results show that almost half of the sample suffered from clinically relevant levels of at least one component (ie, cognitive, somatic) of pre-sleep arousal. Subjects with greater pre-sleep arousal exhibited poorer sleep quality. Also, sleep quality was strongly associated with somatic and cognitive pre-sleep arousal. Regarding the predictors of sleep and sleep-related measures, depressive and event-related stress symptoms were the main factors associated with both poor sleep quality and pre-sleep arousal components. Moreover, specific sociodemographic and environmental variables were uniquely related to sleep quality, cognitive or somatic pre-sleep arousal.CONCLUSIONS:
These findings suggest that the assessment of specific sleep-related factors (ie, pre-sleep arousal), together with more global measures of sleep quality, may be crucial to depict the complex impact of the pandemic on sleep, and to help prevent and counteract the spread of insomnia symptoms.Keywords
Full text:
Available
Collection:
International databases
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
COVID-19
/
Sleep Initiation and Maintenance Disorders
Type of study:
Observational study
/
Prognostic study
/
Randomized controlled trials
Limits:
Humans
Language:
English
Journal:
Sleep Med
Journal subject:
Neurology
/
Psychophysiology
Year:
2021
Document Type:
Article
Affiliation country:
J.sleep.2021.10.006
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