, presented at the European Congress of Clinical Microbiology & Infectious Diseases and published inThe team discovered that 62% of participants who had been admitted to the hospital for COVID-19 had sleep disruption, which was likely to persist for at least 12 months, and highlight for the first time the association between two post-COVID condition symptoms: breathlessness and sleep disruption.
Statistical analysis identified that sleep disruption was likely to drive breathlessness directly, but that reduced muscle function and increased anxiety, both recognized causes of breathlessness, could partially mediate the association between sleep disturbance and breathlessness. It was also measured objectively in another 729 patients, who wore devices similar to smartwatches that measured night-time activity levels.
One of the authors Dr. John Blaikley, a clinical scientist from The University of Manchester and respiratory doctor said: “This study has discovered that sleep disturbance could be an important driver of post-COVID-19 breathlessness – or dyspnoea – because of its associations with reduced muscle function and anxiety.
“These same systems are also affected by sleep disturbance, another symptom that has been frequently reported after COVID-19.
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