Long COVID Insomnia and Disruptive Sleep: Breaking the Cycle of Exhaustion
Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash
Approximately 1.3 million people in the UK are still living with Long COVID, its persistent symptoms including fatigue, brain fog, shortness of breath - and disruptive sleep. Long COVID insomnia and disruptive sleep is a particularly tough challenge. As founder of Zeez Sleep, manufacturer of the Zeez Sleep Pebble sleep device, I am used to Zeez users reporting difficulty falling sleep, staying asleep, or waking up feeling exhausted rather than refreshed, but those with Long Covid also struggle with racing nighttime heartbeat and exceptionally vivid dreams, which itself disrupts the rest of their night and day. Their sleep is both disrupted and disruptive, and their exhaustion can be extreme. It is a significant barrier to well-being: good quality rest and sleep are essential to recovery and a good quality of life.
I was as obsessed as anyone with the progress of the SARS-COV-2 virus, particularly because for decades I had worked, as an IP lawyer, with scientists and doctors who were developing anti-viral and immune-boosting treatments to counter the HIV virus. I remember one Zeez user telling me, right at the beginning of the pandemic, that she used the relaxation frequencies of the Zeez to keep herself calm and breathing deeply through a scary night, after which her breathing improved. No-one I knew got Covid badly enough to need hospital, and none had Long COVID.
I didn’t meet real people with Long COVID until the middle of this year (2025), when I began to work with a group of people with chronic fatigue who had unsuccessfully used vagal stimulation to try to improve their condition. Most had chronic fatigue syndrome (M.E.) and a few had Long COVID. We have been helping people with CFS since we first began testing in 2016. [A] Could we replicate the success that we had in helping people with CFS to sleep better with those with Long COVID Insomnia and disruptive sleep? The symptoms of Long COVID and CFS (M.E.) overlap, but they aren’t the same.
How Long COVID Affects Sleep
Most Zeez users experience insomnia following anxiety, stress or trauma. They develop a neurological pattern which disrupts melatonin production and fragments sleep patterns. Neurons retain their inherent ability to sleep even if we haven't slept well for decades, and in these cases the job of the Zeez is to reactivate neurons and reestablish a pattern of neuronal activity which corresponds to good sleep - falling asleep quickly, sleeping deeply, and waking up refreshed.
Long COVID insomnia is different from typical insomnia. Rather than stemming from stress or poor sleep habits, it is tied to the body's ongoing response to viral infection. Post-viral inflammation impacts the brain's sleep-regulating centres, which adds to the disruption to sleep caused by anxiety and stress.
-
the SARS-COV-2 virus targets various organs and tissues after entry into the body,
Like all viruses SARS-COV-2 Induces inflammation
Our mitochondria (the energy centers of our cells) are particularly susceptible to the effects of inflammation and oxidative stress.
Neurons and heart muscle contain more mitochondria than other organs, and are most affected by inflammation and oxidative stress.
Mitochondrial dysfunction leads to autonomic dysfunction (dysautonomia): Long COVID sufferers get “parasympathetic excess”. and “Alpha-sympathetic withdrawal”, meaning that
their "rest and digest" system is overactive, leading to fatigue, dizziness, headaches, gastrointestinal issues, and sleep difficulties and
they are over-stimulated, in a hyperadrenergic state leading to hypertension, tachycardia, sweating and tremors
Simply put, the virus creates heightened arousal states and fragmented sleep – a vicious cycle of exhaustion that is hard to break. The autonomic nervous system – responsible for regulating heart rate, breathing, and our sleep-wake cycle – can remain in a state of hyperarousal long after the initial infection has cleared. This is why so many Long COVID patients experience a racing heartbeat at night, or find themselves jolting awake with their nervous system in overdrive, years after their initial SARS COV-2 infection. [end of accordion]
The Zeez Sleep Pebble was designed to address disrupted sleep architecture, but Long COVID presents a particularly complex mix.
Other Zeez users also have physical impairments in the brain which interfere with good sleep - our inventor/engineer, Steve Walpole, experienced migraines and poor sleep began after a catastrophic road accident with head injuries that damaged part of his brain. He was able to stop his migraines and recover good sleep by recreating the electrical activity that had been generated by the damaged part of his brain. In a similar way, we have been able to help people suffering from Parkinson's, where part of the brain is progressively damaged. The experience of people with physical damage to the brain inclines us to expect success with people with Long COVID.
How bad is our sleep?
Poor sleep is a major problem, with sleep quality having deteriorated with the pandemic. A survey with 2,000 UK adults carried out for the Mental Health Foundation, published on October 25th 2025, showed that
On average we only get three days a week of good quality sleep
In a typical week. 14% adults don’t get the sleep they need to function well on any day
38% say poor sleep negatively affects their mental health at least once a week.
In the past month, poor sleep has led to 48% of adults feeling more angry or irritable, more stressed and overwhelmed, or more anxious (putting them at risk of mental health problems).
33% of working adults say that poor sleep affects their ability to concentrate, and 22% admit that it has caused them to make more mistakes.
For Long COVID sufferers, these numbers are likely to be higher, perhaps universal.
The Zeez Approach: Prompting Natural Sleep Architecture
The Zeez Sleep Pebble creates extremely low power electromagnetic pulses that mimic the brain activity of a good sleeper. Zeez signals are too gentle to cross the skull, yet they may be picked up by the brain, prompting a resonant response. When this happens, your brain communicates with your body via the vagal system to calm breathing and regulate mood, allowing you to relax, drift off, and sleep deeply. This indirect effect on the vagal system is particularly relevant for Long COVID patients, many of whom find direct vagal nerve stimulation too intense.
The Zeez Sleep Pebble begins with 20 minutes of alpha frequencies (8-12 Hz) to help you relax and calm your nervous system – particularly valuable for Long COVID patients whose autonomic nervous system is in overdrive. This is followed by theta frequencies (4-8 Hz) as you drift off, then four periods of delta frequencies (0.5-4 Hz) timed to fit with natural sleep cycles over 6¾ hours. Many Long COVID patients have told us that their sleep architecture has become chaotic – they're cycling erratically between light sleep and brief periods of deeper sleep, never settling into the restorative patterns their body needs. The Zeez helps correct that disrupted architecture.
More about how the Zeez Sleep Pebble works here.
In our 2016 trials, 79% of participants slept better with the Sleep Pebble, rising to 90% when combined with good sleep hygiene and nutritional support. We've helped people with CFS (M.E.), PTSD, and other conditions characterised by disrupted autonomic function – conditions that share characteristics with Long COVID. We want similar success with people with Long COVID.
Photo by Kinga Howard on Unsplash
Vivid Dreams and Racing Heartbeat: What's Happening?
Many Long COVID patients report intensely vivid dreams and a racing heartbeat at night. These symptoms signal heightened sympathetic nervous system activity –the body is stuck in a state of arousal even during sleep. The alpha frequencies at the beginning of the Zeez programme specifically target this hyperarousal, helping to activate our parasympathetic nervous system (the 'rest and digest' system) and counter the overactive sympathetic response.
One user who trialled our Sleep Pebble prototype during Long COVID recovery reported that managing energy levels became easier once sleep improved – a testament to how foundational good sleep is for recovery from any chronic condition.
Results
We have good results. We know the results are good because everyone who tried the device paid for it, on a sale/return basis, with a full money-back guarantee - and no one with Long COVID has returned it! We have had positive comments from people with Long Covid too, and no negative comments. But we also don’t have enough survey responses to know for certain that we had a positive effect for a significant number of people. It isn’t surprising that we are waiting for responses - our users are poorly and have low energy. I want many more people with Long COVID to use the Zeez, and much more evidence. What we have is very interesting, but not extensive enough to make me confident. With people with CFS, it was obvious right from the beginning that we had a remarkable tool, but the number of people with Long Covid Insomnia and sleep disruption who have used the Sleep Pebble and reported back is still too small for me to shout yet. I will add more info to this article as soon as I have enough feedback. Watch this space Better still, try the Zeez Sleep Pebble and add to our evidence.