PETALING JAYA, April 30 — The Covid-19 crisis has brought a lot of uncertainties for many - and this has affected their sleeping patterns.

Universiti Malaya (UM) consultant psychiatrist Dr Rusdi Abd Rashid said that the number of individuals suffering from sleep problems have been increasing since the movement control order (MCO).

He said uncertainties during the MCO period such as financial insecurities have induced feelings of anxiousness and despair - subsequently affecting their sleeping patterns.

"With the MCO being enforced, people are constantly thinking about their jobs and salaries to support themselves and their family members,” he said.

"This is because employers have admitted that they can’t maintain their employees due to their shrinking business profits.

"If the MCO extends to a longer period of time, more companies will be shut down and this would result in more people losing their jobs.”

The journal Impacts of COVID-19 Pandemic on Mental Health in Malaysia: A Single Thread of Hope also cited that financial insecurities include those in Malaysia’s B-40 and M-40 categories who have lost their income or are on the verge of being fired.

The small and medium enterprises (SME) in Malaysia are also unable to sustain the financial burdens and have also been resorting to reducing the number of employees and providing unpaid leaves due to the country’s poor economic status.

According to the journal, when people lose their jobs they become uncertain about their future and this eventually leads to feelings of anxiety and depression.

Besides these sectors, Dr Rusdi also said that healthcare workers are also suffering from sleep problems as a result of developing psychological stress while managing their patients.

A study in China in 2020 mentioned that among 1,257 frontliners, 50.4 per cent reported symptoms of depression while 44.6 per cent have symptoms of anxiety.

The findings stated that medical professionals were stressed because they were either exhausted with long working hours while others had a sense of guilt when they watched their patients’ health deteriorate without their family members by their sides.

UM psychiatric expert, Associate Prof Dr Amer Siddiq Amer Nordin said financial insecurities affect peoples’ mental health by worrying about the impending recession and whether they would still have their jobs by the end of the MCO.

"For some people who have never done financial planning, they don’t have the means to support their families and themselves amid these trying times and accumulate debt instead.

"This leads to desperation and some suffer from depression due to the enormous pressures that they are in to repay that debt.”

Dr Amer also said that healthcare workers in China who were burdened with these anxieties had trouble sleeping or suffered from insomnia.

Ways to cope with disrupted sleeping patterns due to anxiety

While it seems as though sleeping patterns of people have turned upside down due to the current MCO, there are ways to regulate it to normal according to these experts.

"Sleeping and waking up at regular times are important irrespective of whether we’re in a MCO or not,” says Dr Amer.

He also recommended doing exercises or even practising meditation as it helped with mood regulation while learning relaxation techniques also help reduce anxiety symptoms naturally.

Monash University Malaysia and ReGen Rehab Hospital's consultant clinical psychologist Paul K. Jambunathan said meditation helped the individual to focus on the present without being distracted by intrusive thoughts and preoccupations of the past and future.

"The very fact that one is still, focused and of clear mind is itself a positively reinforcing state that brings calm to both the psychological and physiological systems of the body. The excitatory stimuli is reduced or even eliminated.”

Paul also said that while exercise was important, it should complement the desired sleep-wake cycle - as it varied according to the nature of work for different people.

He added that family members needed to work out practical methods while they were staying at home too.

"Family members need to have an open honest communication with one another and respect each other’s needs especially now that most families are staying together.”

Dr Rusdi said it was important for family members to work together — by being observant to one another, listening to each other’s problems and even going to the extent of seeking professional help if it’s required.”

He said sleep was important as any disturbances of sleep functions would affect physical and mental health including the immunity system against Covid-19.

"Our immune system is energised during sleep and that is why inadequate sleep affects the production of immunity cells.”

As to why sleep is especially important during the pandemic, Dr Amer said that adequate sleep allowed us to manage our emotions better especially during these long periods of uncertainty.