673 Did the COVID-19 pandemic increase insomnia?

Stanley, Neil; Gardiner, Alison; Sunter, Nicola

INTRODUCTION: COVID-19 has been an unprecedented health event with far-reaching health and economic consequences. There have been numerous surveys published that have suggested that insomnia has increased during the pandemic. However, there have been no comparisons of data from the pandemic with that from other years. Here we present baseline data from people signing up to an online CBTi course to investigate the impact of COVID-19 on sleep. METHODS: We investigated the difference in age; diary-reported Sleep Efficiency (SE%) and Total Sleep Time (TST); sleep quality and disturbances as measured by the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) and daytime sleepiness using the Epworth Sleepiness Scale (ESS); between the first wave of COVID-19 in the UK (1st March -31st July 2020) as compared to the same period in 2019. RESULTS: In 2019 n=2231 patients were assessed as compared to n=6173 in 2020. There were no significant differences in the age of the two cohorts (47.1 years v 46.3 years, NS). SE% was significantly lower in the 2019 cohort (66% v 67.6, p <0.001) as was their total sleep time (5.71 hrs v 6.05 hrs, p<0.0001). PSQI scores were also higher in 2019 (13.13 v 12.72. p<0.0001). The level of daytime sleepiness was lower in the 2019 cohort (5.4 v 5.6 p <0.001) CONCLUSION: Our results show that there was no evidence of an increase in the severity of sleep disturbance during the 1st wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in the UK in contrast to what numerous surveys have suggested. Indeed, we found that people signing up to Sleepstation’s online dCBTi course during the 1st wave of the pandemic had statistically significant better subjective sleep, although they had a higher level of daytime sleepiness than those in the same period a year previously. Although statistically significant, our results do not demonstrate a clinically relevant difference between the two cohorts. It is also interesting that despite the age-related impact of COVID-19, there was no significant difference in the age of the patients. Thus, in contrast to the survey data, we found no evidence for a worsening of sleep during the 1st wave of the pandemic. Support (if any):