Does COVID-19 Infection Continue to Affect Self-Reported and Objective Sleep? A Longitudinal Study of Good Sleepers

Whether COVID-19 infection continues to affect both self-reported and objective sleep is not clear. This longitudinal study aims to investigate the impact of COVID-19 infection on self-reported and objective sleep of good sleepers.

Fifteen good sleepers, with prior COVID infection, completed self-reported and objective sleep assessments at 3 time points: pre-COVID-19 infection, short-term post-COVID-19 infection for 1 month and long-term post-COVID-19 infection for 6 months. Self-reported sleep quality was assessed with the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI). Self-reported sleep onset latency (s-SOL) and sleep efficiency (s-SE) were extracted from the PSQI. Objective sleep was assessed by overnight polysomnography. Nighttime electroencephalogram (EEG) relative power at central EEG derivations during sleep was calculated.

Total scores of the PSQI (P=0.003), s-SOL (P=0.017) and s-SE (P=0.040) changed across the 3 time points. Specifically, total PSQI scores (P=0.002) and s-SOL (P=0.011) increased, while s-SE decreased (P=0.019) from the pre-COVID-19 infected period to the short-term post-COVID-19 infected period. However, there were no significant differences regarding PSQI scores, s-SOL or s-SE between short-term and long-term post-COVID-19 infected periods, or between pre-COVID-19 and long-term post-COVID-19 infected periods (all P>0.999). The changes in objective sleep were not significant across different periods except shorter o-SOL at the long-term post-COVID-19 infected period compared to the pre-COVID-19 (P=0.028) and short-term post-COVID-19 infected periods (P=0.010). Similarly, the changes in EEG relative power were not significant across different periods except the relative alpha EEG power during REM sleep (P=0.007).

COVID-19 infection has temporary adverse effect on self-reported sleep but no effect on objective sleep of good sleepers.