Over 40% of Healthcare Workers Had Insomnia During COVID. And Many Still Do
If you worked in healthcare during the pandemic and your sleep has never quite gone back to normal, this one is for you!
A recent global review involving nearly 33,000 healthcare professional across 14 countries found that more than 4 in 10 healthcare workers experienced insomnia during and after the acute phase of the COVID pandemic. That’s not a small blip. That’s a widespread, documented sleep crisis in the people responsible for keeping everyone else alive.
And the part that gets me? The effects haven’t simply faded. The data shows insomnia rates among healthcare workers have persisted well beyond the initial pandemic surge. For a lot of people in the field, the body is still carrying it.
The Numbers Tell a Story the Healthcare System Hasn’t Full Reckoned With
The pooled insomnia rate in that global review came in at 43.5%. For frontline workers, it climbed even higher to nearly 55%. Second-line staff weren’t spared either, coming in around 33%.
Those numbers put healthcare workers above what’s reported in the general population. And they’re happening alongside everything else the research has documented: burnout rates that nearly doubled between 2018 and 2022, increased rates of anxiety and depression, PTSD systems, compassion fatigue, and in some cases, people leaving the profession entirely.
A CDC survey found that by 2022, nearly half the health workers reported feeling burned out often or very often compared to about a third in 2018. More than half reported symptoms of anxiety. The percentage experiencing workplace harassment more than doubled.
And research consistently shows that nurses, women, and frontline workers carry the highest psychological burden (the groups most likely to absorb the emotional weight of this work without adequate support or recognition).
Why Healthcare Worker Insomnia is Different
Here’s what I want clinicians and anyone in the caregiving role to understand: the insomnia that comes out of this kind of prolonged stress and trauma is not just about bad sleep hygiene. It is not fixed by a sleep schedule and dimming you light at 9pm.
The nervous system of someone who spend months watching people die, making impossible decisions, working understaffed, isolating from their own family to protect them and doing all this wile carrying grief and fear and exhaustion; that nervous system has changed by the experience. Sleep disturbances that come from trauma and chronic stress operate differently than ordinary insomnia. The hyervigilance doesn’t just switch off when the shift ends.
This is why the researcher noted that addressing sleep disturbances in healthcare workers isn’t just about quality of life in the short term. Untreated insomnia is a known pathway to deeper mental health struggles such as depression and anxiety, and the longer it goes unaddressed, the harder it becomes to untangle.
The Culture of “Push Through” Made This Worse
There’s something worth naming here that the statistics don’t fully capture.
Healthcare culture glorifies endurance. You became a healthcare hero. You were celebrated on the news. People banged pots and pans and put signs on their windows. And while that appreciation was real and deserved, it also created a kind of pressure to keep performing strength, to not be the one who struggled, to need less support than you actually needed.
One study noted that while short-term recognition of healthcare workers was meaningful, it could actually obscure the human need for genuine, ongoing support (especially in settings where mental health still carries stigma). Many healthcare workers didn’t seek help during the pandemic. And many still haven’t.
What Actually Helps
The research is clear that for this population, treatment needs to go beyond surface-level sleep hygiene. Here’s what the evidence supports:
CBT-I (Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia)
CBT-I is the gold standard treatment for chronic insomnia and it’s well-suited for trauma-adjacent sleep disruption because it addresses the thoughts and nervous system patterns driving the wakefulness, not just the external conditions. It’s structured, time-limited, and has strong evidence behind it. If you haven’t heard of it or tried it, it’s worth knowing about.
Nervous System Regulation
For a nervous system that’s been running on high alert for months or years, regulation practices matter. This includes things like breathwork, mindfulness, body-based approaches and somatic techniques that help your system learn that it is actually safe to rest. This is different from relaxation tips as its about retraining the threat response over time.
Genuine Support (not just resources)
Access to a list of coping tips is not the same as actual support. Whether that’s therapy, a peer support group, a trusted colleague, or a space where you can process what you’ve been through without performing strength; real support changes outcomes. The research on healthcare worker burnout is consistent on this: social connection and feeling genuinely supported are protective. Their absence is a risk factor.
For Therapists Specifically
If you’re a clinician reading this and you’re recognizing your own sleep struggles in these numbers, you’re not exempt from needing support. You are human too. Therapists carry a heavy load, and vicarious trauma that is real.
You Showed Up For Everyone Else, You Deserve Support Too
The pandemic asked an impossible amount of healthcare workers. The least we can do now is take their sleep and mental health seriously. Not as an afterthought. Not as a checkbox on a wellness initiative. But as a real, overdue priority.
If your sleep hasn’t been the same since, that makes complete sense. And it can get better.
Ready to Finally Address Your Sleep?
Whether you’re a healthcare worker whose sleep ahs never recovered or a clinician looking to integrate CBT-I into your own practice, I can help. I offer CBT-I therapy and CBT-I consulting for therapists. Contact me today to get started.
