Jun Wu,1– 3 Baixin Chen,1– 3 Qingsong Qin,4 Yanyuan Dai,1– 3 Le Chen,1– 3 Dandan Zheng,1– 3 Jiansheng Zhang,1– 3 Yun Li1– 3 

1Department of Sleep Medicine, Mental Health Center of Shantou University, Shantou, Guangdong, People’s Republic of China; 2Sleep Medicine Center, Shantou University Medical College, Shantou, Guangdong, People’s Republic of China; 3Shantou University Medical College—Faculty of Medicine of University of Manitoba Joint Laboratory of Biological Psychiatry, Shantou, Guangdong, People’s Republic of China; 4Laboratory of Human Virology and Oncology, Shantou University Medical College, Shantou, People’s Republic of China

Correspondence: Yun Li, Department of Sleep Medicine,Mental Health Center of Shantou University, North Taishan Road, Wanji District, Shantou, Guangdong, 515041, People’s Republic of China, Email s_liyun@stu.edu.cn

Background: Whether COVID-19 infection continues to affect both self-reported and objective sleep is not clear. This longitudinal study aims to investigate the impact of COVID-19 infection on self-reported and objective sleep of good sleepers.
Methods: Fifteen good sleepers, with prior COVID infection, completed self-reported and objective sleep assessments at 3 time points: pre-COVID-19 infection, short-term post-COVID-19 infection for 1 month and long-term post-COVID-19 infection for 6 months. Self-reported sleep quality was assessed with the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI). Self-reported sleep onset latency (s-SOL) and sleep efficiency (s-SE) were extracted from the PSQI. Objective sleep was assessed by overnight polysomnography. Nighttime electroencephalogram (EEG) relative power at central EEG derivations during sleep was calculated.
Results: Total scores of the PSQI (P=0.003), s-SOL (P=0.017) and s-SE (P=0.040) changed across the 3 time points. Specifically, total PSQI scores (P=0.002) and s-SOL (P=0.011) increased, while s-SE decreased (P=0.019) from the pre-COVID-19 infected period to the short-term post-COVID-19 infected period. However, there were no significant differences regarding PSQI scores, s-SOL or s-SE between short-term and long-term post-COVID-19 infected periods, or between pre-COVID-19 and long-term post-COVID-19 infected periods (all P> 0.999). The changes in objective sleep were not significant across different periods except shorter o-SOL at the long-term post-COVID-19 infected period compared to the pre-COVID-19 (P=0.028) and short-term post-COVID-19 infected periods (P=0.010). Similarly, the changes in EEG relative power were not significant across different periods except the relative alpha EEG power during REM sleep (P=0.007).
Conclusion: COVID-19 infection has temporary adverse effect on self-reported sleep but no effect on objective sleep of good sleepers.

Keywords: COVID-19 infection, self-reported sleep, objective sleep