HJBR Mar/Apr 2021

SLEEPING THROUGH COVID 10 MAR / APR 2021 I  HEALTHCARE JOURNAL OF BATON ROUGE   As primary care providers know too well, sleep disruption was already among patients’ most common health complaints before COVID-19 quarantines began last year. Since then, reports of sleep problems have increased dramatically. While COVID is certainly a benchmark in that trend, healthcare providers across south Louisiana saw the stage set for prob- lems with sleep even before the pandemic. College football fans were already due for some rest after celebrating LSU’s champi- onship in January 2020. Instead, the rev- elry continued as Carnival season reached its peak with Mardi Gras in late February. Of course, no one at the time could pre- dict the tsunami of stressful events over the remainder of the year. National poli- tics remained highly divisive. The death of George Floyd in Minneapolis and the racial justice demonstrations that followed, along with numerous hurricanes — including two storms that struck at nearly the same time — along with a contentious fall election com- pounded the anxieties that deprived us of sleep. COVID dramatically reduced our social activities, which have a crucial connection with anxiety and depression. Suddenly, there were no vacations, no hugs, no contact with family, co-workers and friends. Sleep spe- cialists routinely hear patients express their loneliness on working from home. Many Americans who had never expe- rienced long-term sleep disruption were unfamiliar with sleep hygiene and unable to cope. Those dealing with substance abuse often face higher risk of relapses. Sleep dis- ruption worsens mental disorders such as depression, ADHD and bipolar disorder. Newly published research offers a scientific indication that the stress, worry and anxiety caused by the pandemic has indeed taken a toll on healthy, restful sleep worldwide. In a report published in January in the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine, researchers wanted to examine whether pandemic-related stress and social isola- tion could adversely affect sleep. Their con- clusion: since COVID lockdowns began, the number of people reporting sleep problems has surged worldwide. For healthcare pro- fessionals, these results should demonstrate the need to screen patients for sleep prob- lems and the use of sleeping aids, especially in more susceptible populations as identi- fied in the new report. Researchers used two, large-scale online surveys conducted inMarch andApril 2020. In the first, which garnered more than 2,500 responses from 49 countries, 58% of respondents said they were unsatisfied with their sleep, while 40% reported decreased sleep quality compared to before the pan- demic began. Self-reported sleeping pill consumption increased by 20%. Robert John Sawyer II, PhD, ABPP-CN Co-Director of Cognitive Disorders and Brain Health Program Ochsner Medical Center Robert John Sawyer II, PhD, ABPP-CN, serves as co-director of Ochsner Medical Center’s Cognitive Disorders and Brain Health Program. A lifespan neuropsychologist, Sawyer is trained to evaluate children, adolescents, adults and geriatrics. He is also trained in cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia and treats patients for insomnia and promotes the therapy for brain health and its role in preventing dementia. After undergraduate studies at Millsaps College in Mississippi, Sawyer earned a master’s degree from the University of Southern Mississippi and a PhD in psychology from the University of Memphis. He completed an internship at the Memphis VA Medical Center and a two-year fellowship in neuropsychology at the Maryland VA Healthcare System. He provides evaluations and expertise in legal contexts and has supervised several neuropsychology trainees. He served as an affiliate faculty member at Loyola University Maryland and Towson University in Maryland.