key: cord-0938079-0zehaded
authors: Yao, Bo; Xing, Jin-yan
title: First-line medical workers still exists sleep problems after leaving wards of coronavirus disease 2019
date: 2020-08-06
journal: Sleep Med
DOI: 10.1016/j.sleep.2020.07.040
sha: e8ca63e0baa1207615086bafe620764c00338e74
doc_id: 938079
cord_uid: 0zehaded

• In the first-line anti-epedemic days, sleep quality in 47.1% first-line workers fighting COVID 2019 got worse. • First-line workers who were married or had child were easier to recover to daily sleep status than others. • After leaving wards of COVID 2019, more than 27% first-line workers still had sleep disturbance.

To the Editor, In late December 2019, the 2019 novel coronavirus (COVID 2019) began to spread throughout China. Some medical workers (including one of the authors) were recruited as frontline medical workers (FMW) fighting COVID 2019. During this period, Dr Yao's sleep quality became very poor. Sleep deprivation has detrimental effects on immune response and may lead to increased susceptibility to infections [1] . Previous studies showed 38% -78.4% FMW had sleep disturbance during the outbreak of COVID 2019 [2, 3] . However, these studies were all cross-sectional. Therefore, we performed a prospective follow-up study focusing on changes in sleep quality in FMW. The sleep quality of 51 FMW in our hospital was evaluated by Sleep State Self-Rating Scale (SRSS) [4] during four periods (ie, in the period of daily life [pre COVID 19], the days fighting against COVID 19 as a FMW, 14-day selfisolation, and the 7 th day after finishing self-isolation).

Our study found that SRSS scores differentiated these four periods [21(17-24) vs. 25(20-31) vs. 20(17-27) vs. 20(17-23), P=0.036]. In the first-line anti-epidemic period, SRSS scores were higher than daily life and 47.1% of FMW sleep quality worsened. During the periods of self-isolation and the 7 th day after finishing selfisolation, SRSS scores recovered to daily life level. However, dispersion of SRSS scores were much wider than daily life. While in the self-isolation period, 52.6% of FMW sleep quality improved, yet, 27.7% of individuals sleep quality worsened. Furthermore, on the 7 th day after finishing self-isolation, 27.1% of FMW still did not recover to daily sleep quality levels. Moreover, FMW who were married or had children found recovery to pre-COVID 19 daily sleep levels easier than single workers (married/ not married 26/9 vs. 5/8, P=0.039; having child/ having no child 24/11 vs. 3/10, P=0.005). In conclusion, attention should be paid to our findings which showed that FMW sleep quality decreased during the days fighting against COVID 19 but in some cases also during and after isolation. 

Sick and tired: Does sleep have a vital role in the immune system?

Sleep disturbances among medical workers during the outbreak of COVID-2019

The evaluation of sleep disturbances for Chinese frontline medical workers under the outbreak of COVID-19

Effects of progressive muscle relaxation on anxiety and sleep quality in patients with COVID-19

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.