Delhi: Many people are having sleepless nights a year after defeating Covid.

  • May 30, 2022, noon

NEW DELHI: People might continue to face difficulty with sleeping habits months – and, in some cases, even a year – after recovery from COVID.

Senior health expert Prof (Dr) G C Khilnani, who is currently the chairman of PSRI Hospital and Institute of Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine, said 59% of people who recovered from COVID continued to face sleep disturbances.

"Sleep disorders do not reflect structural changes in the brain." There has been no biochemical study that establishes how COVID has directly impacted the sleep pattern, but the virus does affect the brain. And MRI shows that areas that are concerning taste are affected. "COVID does affect the brain—reversely or irreversibly," said Dr. Khilnani, who is also former professor and head of the department of Pulmonary Medicine and Sleep Disorders at AIIMS.

Among the common symptoms that are often faced by those recovering from COVID are waking up in the middle of sleep, being unable to sleep beyond three to four hours, suffering from panic attacks while asleep, and excessive perspiration.

"Because a person is not able to sleep properly, one feels drowsy throughout the day." These kinds of problems are seen in two categories of people who have recovered from the infection – one, who have spent many days in ICU, on ventilation, remained in a critical stage and have witnessed deaths ; and two, who tend to suffer from panic attacks in the middle of the night and are unable to sleep. They also suffer from perspiration because of those traumatic experiences at the hospital. Then, there is another category of people who have mild or moderate COVID and yet are unable to fall asleep or are struggling with shortened hours of sleep, "he added.

Dr Khilnani noted that if the problem persists for a long time, then it is important to realise the need for medical treatment.

"It is important to recognise when medical treatment should be sought so that the situation doesn't turn worse." During the lockdown, our habits were disturbed because people were not going to work. "They became more addicted to phones and their sleeping and waking times changed," he said.

Dr. Khilnani stressed the importance of maintaining a fixed cycle of sleep. "Wake up time has to be fixed, otherwise rhythm won't be achieved." "It won't be beneficial if someone is sleeping at 11pm and waking at 6am and, on another day, sleeping at 4am and waking at 11am, it won't be beneficial," he stated.

Though the Delta variant turned out to be deadly during the course of the infection period, in the case of Omicron, the post-recovery symptoms appeared stronger, he said.

Dr Ashish Khattar, senior consultant, internal medicine, Venkateshwar Hospital, said:

"Post-Covid, there have been many complications related to sleep, including psychiatric and neurological manifestations. However, there is no theoretical or written documentation to it. Whatever complications have arisen are attributed to Covid. Normally, people recover in six weeks to three months. Only 1% of the population may be facing the problem for a longer period of time," he stated

Dr Khilnani added: "Omicron was mild and, therefore, the symptoms that came post recovery were hurting more. We saw clotting and thrombotic issues, irregularity in gastro, loose motion, diarrohea after recovery from Omicron. However, post-Covid symptoms are much less in those who are fully vaccinated.

Author : Rajdhani Delhi Representative

Rajdhani delhi representative

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