COVID-19 Worries and Insomnia: A Follow-Up Study

Lily A. Brown (), Yiqin Zhu, Gabriella E. Hamlett, Tyler M. Moore, Grace E. DiDomenico, Elina Visoki, David M. Greenberg, Ruben C. Gur, Raquel E. Gur and Ran Barzilay
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Lily A. Brown: Department of Psychiatry, School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania Perelman, 3535 Market Street Suite 600N, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA
Yiqin Zhu: Department of Psychiatry, School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania Perelman, 3535 Market Street Suite 600N, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA
Gabriella E. Hamlett: Department of Psychiatry, School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania Perelman, 3535 Market Street Suite 600N, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA
Tyler M. Moore: Department of Psychiatry, School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania Perelman, 3535 Market Street Suite 600N, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA
Grace E. DiDomenico: Lifespan Brain Institute of the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and Penn Medicine, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA
Elina Visoki: Lifespan Brain Institute of the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and Penn Medicine, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA
David M. Greenberg: Department of Music, Bar Ilan University, Ramat Gan 5290002, Israel
Ruben C. Gur: Department of Psychiatry, School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania Perelman, 3535 Market Street Suite 600N, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA
Raquel E. Gur: Department of Psychiatry, School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania Perelman, 3535 Market Street Suite 600N, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA
Ran Barzilay: Department of Psychiatry, School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania Perelman, 3535 Market Street Suite 600N, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA

IJERPH, 2023, vol. 20, issue 5, 1-15

Abstract: The COVID-19 pandemic was associated with significant increases in sleep disorder symptoms and chronic worry. We previously demonstrated that worry about the pandemic was more strongly associated with subsequent insomnia than the converse during the acute (first 6 months) phase of the pandemic. In this report, we evaluated whether that association held over one year of the pandemic. Participants ( n = 3560) completed self-reported surveys of worries about the pandemic, exposure to virus risk factors, and the Insomnia Severity Index on five occasions throughout the course of one year. In cross-sectional analyses, insomnia was more consistently associated with worries about the pandemic than exposure to COVID-19 risk factors. In mixed-effects models, changes in worries predicted changes in insomnia and vice versa. This bidirectional relationship was further confirmed in cross-lagged panel models. Clinically, these findings suggest that during a global disaster, patients who report elevations in either worry or insomnia should be considered for evidence-based treatments for these symptoms to prevent secondary symptoms in the future. Future research should evaluate the extent to which dissemination of evidence-based practices for chronic worry (a core feature of generalized anxiety disorder or illness anxiety disorder) or insomnia reduces the development of co-occurring symptoms during a global disaster.

Keywords: worry; insomnia; COVID-19 pandemic; anxiety (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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