When that happens frequently, the person may have a nightmare disorder. A bad dream is a nightmare if it wakes the sleeper up and the sleeper remembers a dream with very unpleasant content and very strong negative emotions, such as fear. Disturbed dreams indicate a sleep disorder only if they are nightmares. When stress increases, such as during the pandemic, sleep tends to be more fragmented and people tend to remember more dreams. Manber: We all dream but are more likely to remember the dream in the morning if we woke up from the dream than if we slept through it. Sometimes medications used to treat physical conditions have insomnia symptoms as side effects.ĭr. Examples include depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, night-time panic attacks, and physical conditions that cause acute or chronic pain. Indeed many physical and mental health conditions may have disturbed sleep as one of its symptoms. For more details on that, here is a great resource – available in several languages - “ Sleeping tips when staying indoors during isolation period” (including English, Spanish, Chinese, French, Japanese, and Hebrew).Īre there other physical and mental health conditions that make us more likely to develop a sleep disorder in times of stress?ĭr. Some ways to avoid this from happening are to support your body clock and daily rhythms and address signs of insomnia if you notice them. The sleep difficulties that emerge during the pandemic can develop into one of the two sleep disorders that I mentioned earlier, insomnia disorder and circadian rhythm sleep-wake disorders, delayed type. Is it possible for temporary sleep problems to develop into a chronic one?ĭr. Circadian rhythm sleep-wake disorder, delayed type, is experienced as difficulty waking up in the morning and falling asleep at a societal normative time, but when going to bed and waking up at a later time sleep is not an issue. Insomnia disorder is characterized by difficulties falling or staying asleep that occur despite having adequate opportunity for sleep that are not better explained by other medical or psychiatric disorders or by use of substances. Manber: Insomnia disorder and circadian rhythm sleep-wake disorders, delayed type, are the two disorders most likely to be impacted by the pandemic. What kinds of diagnosed sleep disorders are most likely to be exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemicĭr. These behaviors have negative impact on the biological clock that regulates sleep and wakefulness and therefore lead to problems sleeping. For example, they might be less regular in when they wake up or take long naps during the day. Shelter in place also lead some people to alter the timing and duration of sleep in ways that can be detrimental to sleep. Another example is people who have not given themselves enough time to sleep and now they can, or adolescents who had the pressure of an early school day can now get the additional sleep they need. For example, they may be taking more breaks and have more interactions with the people they live with. Working from home allows them to maintain a more balanced life, and hence less stress and better sleep. But there are also people who sleep better now than before the pandemic. The intrusive thoughts then make it difficult to fall asleep initially or return to sleep if awakened in the middle of the night. Distraction and other strategies people use to deal with the stress during the day are not helpful when they go to bed at night. In general, worries and anxieties tend to have a negative impact on sleep. People may worry not only about the disease itself, other health issue that might not be optimally addressed, financial issue, as well as other psychological and interpersonal stressors. The pandemic and related shelter in place measures to mitigate its spread have increase stress levels among many. The two main contributors to potential worsening of sleep are changes in stress levels and changes in sleep behaviors. Is this to be expected, even in those for whom healthy sleep was never an issue?ĭr. We’re hearing and reading about a general increase in reports of disturbed sleep in these times of COVID-19.
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