HEALTH PROFESSIONALS' SLEEP QUALITY DURING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC: an integrative review

Abstract

This study aims to identify the compromised sleep quality of health professionals during the Covid-19 pandemic. Integrative literature review carried out in June 2023 in the following databases: LILACS, BDENF and IBECS, via BVS, MEDLINE via PUBMED and SciELO. The controlled descriptors used were: Health personnel, Sleep quality and Covid-19, and their alternative terms. Primary studies were included, published in Portuguese, English or Spanish, between 2020 and 2023. An initial sample of 749 articles was obtained, which went through the following stages: application of filters, prior reading of titles and abstracts, reading in full and alignment with the focus of the study, making up the final sample of 15 articles.  The Covid-19 pandemic has directly influenced the lives of health professionals, exposing them to exhausting and prolonged routines. Topics such as adherence to smoking, alcoholism, self-medication, poor diet, metabolic and cardiovascular diseases and sleep disorders were recurrent. Feelings of insecurity, fear and stress, and the emergence of anxiety and depressive disorders, affected sleep quality. The pandemic scenario was found to have catalyzed disorders related to poor sleep quality, resulting in greater exposure to physical and mental illness.