COVID-19 Healthcare Workers Are Struggling with Insomnia

The current global pandemic has been difficult for healthcare workers, both physically and mentally. They’ve been on the frontlines fighting the SARS-CoV-2 virus for over a year now, which has taken a toll on their daily lives. 

For instance, one of the main hurdles of healthcare workers around the world is their plight with insomnia. In fact, a recent study showed a 44% increase in insomnia disorder among healthcare workers.

In a nutshell, a survey was conducted at the beginning of the pandemic that included participants in physicians, physician assistants, and various nurse practitioners. The results indicated that during the pandemic, the instance of insomnia amongst healthcare workers had increased from 44.5% to 64%. 

People who suffer from insomnia experience poor sleep — whether that means that they cannot get to sleep or struggle to stay asleep throughout the night. As such, this can affect people during their waking hours and impact their performance. And during a time when healthcare workers need to be at their best, this can be a huge problem. 

In fact, healthcare workers are more important now than ever before; they are expected to perform their tasks under difficult circumstances, to say the least. 

However, even though they require quality sleep, some healthcare workers may be skeptical of using over-the-counter sleep aids due to the possible side effects, whereas others may use supplements that help with sleep, such as melatonin supplements.