2023-06-14 14:50:40
Having sleep disturbances before Sars-CoV-2 infection appears to be associated with more Long Covid symptoms. This is what emerges from an Italian research. The study, published in the scientific journal ‘Brain, Behavior, and Immunity’, was signed by researchers from the Laboratory of sleep psychophysiology and cognitive neuroscience at the University of L’Aquila. Under the lens the possible role of pre-existing conditions such as poor quality sleep, symptoms of insomnia, reduced sleep duration. These disorders, according to the conclusions of the authors, represent a significant risk factor for the development of almost all the symptoms of Long Covid examined, as well as determining longer functional recovery times.
The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates more than 760 million confirmed cases of Covid-19 globally. Although the end of the health emergency has been formalized, the scientists observe, the high prevalence of Long Covid symptoms could produce a second health crisis, “affecting about 4 out of 10 Covid survivors”. The etiology of this syndrome remains poorly understood and few risk factors are currently recognized. Hence the idea of investigating sleep which – explain the Univaq researchers – plays a crucial role in regulating the immune system and in the body’s inflammatory responses. Recent studies, among other things, have identified chronic inflammation and immune dysregulation as some of the pathophysiological mechanisms underlying the symptoms of Long Covid.
From this point of view, sleep disturbances could play a significant role in the predisposition to symptoms that follow Sars-CoV-2 infection in the long term. The prospective study involved a sample of over 700 people infected with Sars-CoV-2 who were evaluated on two occasions: before infection (April 2020) and after contracting the virus (April 2022). In the initial assessment, sleep quality/duration and insomnia symptoms were measured using the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index and Insomnia Severity Index, internationally recognized tools for assessing sleep disorders. In the follow-up evaluation, the researchers then evaluated the presence of a wide range of typical symptoms of Long Covid (psychiatric, neurological, cognitive, physical and respiratory) one and three months after the acute phase of the disease, thus such as the actual recovery times to return to the full level of pre-infection functionality.
The data collected revealed a relationship between pre-infection sleep and Long Covid. “The identification of potential risk factors of Long Covid represents a first order medical challenge, in order to guarantee the identification of vulnerable populations and the definition of targeted preventive interventions”, explains Michele Ferrara, head of the research project and director of the laboratory.
“Sleep disorders such as insomnia represent one of the most common clinical manifestations of Long Covid – adds Federico Salfi, research fellow, creator and first author of the article -. With our study we wanted to overturn the paradigm and propose a new point of sight, demonstrating how sleep problems are also an important antecedent of Long Covid syndrome”. To date, millions of Covid survivors find themselves living with a wide spectrum of clinical manifestations that interfere with their daily lives, sometimes even compromising the ability to resume a regular work routine, overloading international health systems with huge costs social and economic.
“The next step is certainly to evaluate whether preventive interventions aimed at improving the quality and duration of sleep can reduce the sequelae of Covid. The implications could be far-reaching, in light of the pre-existing epidemic of sleep disorders afflicting our society , situation further worsened during the pandemic period “, conclude the two authors of the work.
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