Persistent Short Nighttime Sleep Duration is Associated With a Greater Post-COVID Risk in Fully mRNA-Vaccinated Individuals

Authors

• Pei Xue, Uppsala University
• Ilona Merikanto, University of Helsinki
• Frances Chung, University of Toronto
• Charles M. Morin, Université Laval
• Colin Espie, University of Oxford
• Bjørn Bjorvatn, University of Bergen
• Jonathan Cedernaes, Uppsala University
• Anne-Marie Landtblom, Uppsala University
• Thomas Penzel, Charite University Hospital Berlin
• Luigi De Gennaro, Sapienza University of Rome
• Brigitte Holzinger, Medical University of Vienna
• Kentaro Matsui, National Center of Neurology and Psychiatry
• Harald Hrubos-Strøm, Akershus University Hospital
• Maria Korman, Ariel University
• Damien Leger, Hopital Hotel-Dieu de Paris
• Sérgio Mota-Rolim, Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte
• Courtney J. Bolstad, Mississippi State University
• Michael Nadorff, Mississippi State University
• Giuseppe Plazzi, IRCCS Istituto Delle Scienze Neurologiche di Bologna
• Catia Reis, Universidade Católica Portuguesa
• Rachel Ngan Yin Chan, The Chinese University of Hong Kong
• Yun Kwok Wing, The Chinese University of Hong Kong
• Juliana Yordonova, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences
• Adrijana Koscec Bjelajac, Institute for Medical Research and Occupational Health
• Yuichi Inoue, Tokyo Medical University
• Markku Partinen, University of Helsinki
• Yves Dauvilliers, University of Montpellier
• Christian Benedict, Uppsala University

ORCID

Penzel: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4304-0112; De Gennaro: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3613-6631; Bolstad: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2297-2778; Reis: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6585-3993; Wing: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5745-5474; Yordanova: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4500-1122; Bjelajac: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0547-0047; Benedict: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8911-4068

MSU Affiliation

College of Arts and Sciences; Department of Psychology

Creation Date

2026-06-30

Abstract

Short nighttime sleep duration impairs the immune response to virus vaccination, and long nighttime sleep duration is associated with poor health status. Thus, we hypothesized that short (< 6 h) and long (>9 h) nighttime sleepers have a higher post-COVID risk than normal nighttime sleepers, despite two doses of mRNA vaccine (which has previously been linked to lower odds of long-lasting COVID-19 symptoms). Post-COVID was defined as experiencing at least one core COVID-19 symptom for at least three months (e.g., shortness of breath). Multivariate logistic regression adjusting for age, sex, BMI, and other factors showed in 9717 respondents (age span 18-99) that two mRNA vaccinations lowered the risk of suffering from post-COVID by about 21% (p <  0.001). When restricting the analysis to double-vaccinated respondents (n = 5918), short and long sleepers exhibited a greater post-COVID risk than normal sleepers (adjusted OR [95%-CI], 1.56 [1.29, 1.88] and 1.87 [1.32, 2.66], respectively). Among respondents with persistent sleep duration patterns during the pandemic compared to before the pandemic, short but not long sleep duration was significantly associated with the post-COVID risk (adjusted OR [95%-CI], 1.59 [1.24, 2.03] and 1.18 [0.70, 1.97], respectively). No significant association between sleep duration and post-COVID symptoms was observed in those reporting positive SARS-CoV-2 test results (n = 538). Our findings suggest that two mRNA vaccinations against SARS-CoV-2 are associated with a lower post-COVID risk. However, this protection may be less pronounced among those sleeping less than 6 h per night. Our findings warrant replication in cohorts with individuals with confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection.

Publication Date

2-1-2023

Publication Title

Translational Psychiatry

Publisher

Springer Nature

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Rights

© The Author(s) 2023

Recommended Citation

Xue, P., Merikanto, I., Chung, F. et al. Persistent short nighttime sleep duration is associated with a greater post-COVID risk in fully mRNA-vaccinated individuals. Transl Psychiatry 13, 32 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41398-023-02334-4