How war causes insomnia in the civilian population
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nights of sleep deprivation
How war causes insomnia in the civilian population.
Results of scientific research
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Healthy sleep is the foundation of good health. It is a time when our bodies recover, stress hormone levels decrease, and the brain clears excess stimuli from the day.
Scientists claim that quality sleep lasts 7-8 hours, of which 100-120 minutes should be deep sleep, and the rest of the time should be spent in various stages of rapid and slow sleep. Even if you wake up during sleep, the total duration of awakenings should not exceed 15-20 minutes.
Short awakenings (up to 2 minutes) are part of healthy sleep: up to 15-17 such awakenings are normal. They occur during sleep phase changes, and you won't even remember them in the morning.
But if you wake up in the middle of the night and can't fall asleep for a long time, it significantly impairs your sleep.
Scientists also advise going to sleep and waking up at the same time every day. But in war-torn Ukraine, this advice is more or less impossible to follow. Ignoring air raid sirens and risking your life, catching up on sleep during the day, trying to get some shut-eye in a shelter or on the floor of your own hallway — everyone chooses the best option for themselves. But none of them contributes to proper rest.
When sleep is disturbed, the picture is different. A person cannot fall asleep for a long time, wakes up more often, spends more time without sleep, and the phase of deep rest, necessary for full recovery is reduced.
Imagine a 53-year-old woman living in the Kyiv region (let's call her Tetiana) on the night of November 25, 2023. There was a massive air attack: more than 70 drones were flying towards Kyiv.
The graph shows the woman's sleep patterns from November 6 to December 11. Each bar represents one night. On the night of the shelling she woke up many times and spent more time awake than usual. However, even on days without air raid sirens, she slept poorly.
We know the exact time when Tatiana went to bed (the upper limit of the column), when she fell asleep, and when she woke up in the morning (the lower limit of the column). Still, we only have the total number of minutes without sleep during the night and the total duration of the deep sleep phase during the night without reference to specific hours. Keep this in mind when reviewing the graphs.
Tetiana is one of over a hundred participants in a scientific study, conducted by a team of scientists from several countries with financial support from MSCA4Ukraine and the European Union. The project aims to understand how war affects Ukrainians' sleep and to evaluate the effectiveness of cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (сognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia) during wartime. The researchers assessed participants' psychological state at the beginning and at the end of therapy. All participants kept sleep diaries, and some also used a chest-worn heart rate monitor.
Let's go back to November 25, 2023. A night of heavy shelling. That night, half of the study participants from Kyiv and the surrounding region spent significantly more time awake than usual, as evidenced by their readings.
The duration of the period without sleep during shelling increases significantly
Using the example of participants from the Kyiv region
On the night of the shelling (25.11.2023)
On average
Please pay attention: Kyiv and its surrounding areas are defined as a single region in the study, so we cannot present them separately. There were several massive shellings at the end of 2023 and beginning of 2024, but we only have data from 15 participants for the night of November 25. For other dates, specifically December 29, January 2, and January 23, the number of measurements was significantly lower.
The graph above illustrates what seems obvious at first glance: if a city is under heavy shelling, a significant portion of its population will sleep poorly. If such shelling becomes more frequent, it leads to prolonged sleep disturbances. And these disturbances do not disappear even on relatively calm nights.
At the end of 2023 and the beginning of 2024, the intensity and duration of the alerts were lower, and the shelling was not as heavy. During the 40 nights covered by the study, air raid sirens sounded on average 6–7 times. At the same time, 44% of participants showed signs of insomnia, and 27% had clinical insomnia. This is three times higher than the rates typical for peaceful countries, where insomnia is diagnosed in only 8.5–13% of the population.
When we began analyzing the research data, we expected to see a more precise correlation between poor sleep and air raid sirens. However, our expectations were not confirmed. After almost two years of constant nightly attacks (the study lasted from October 2023 to March 2024), Ukrainians developed chronic sleep disorders. As can be seen from the indicators of individual people, they sleep poorly regardless of the presence or absence of anxiety.
In addition, against the backdrop of constant anxiety, many participants in the study developed other psychological problems: depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress disorder.
Percentage of study participants with disorders
Not all participants had pronounced disorders. However, below we will focus on several typical problems.
This graph shows the sleep patterns of a 50-year-old woman from the Dnipropetrovsk region. She usually went to bed between 9 p.m. and 1 a.m., but it took her an extra hour or two to fall asleep. Her nighttime awakenings were also significantly longer than usual.
An 18-year-old girl from the Kyiv region. She usually goes to bed around 2:00 a.m. and wakes up between 6:00 and 8:00 a.m. Here we see insufficient sleep duration. Although the phases' proportions are generally normal, on some days the girl slept for 4 hours instead of the required 7-8 hours.
A 22-year-old woman from Kyiv. The opposite problem. Sleep quality indicators are generally good, but the duration is significantly longer than the norm, sometimes up to 12 hours.
A 22-year-old resident of Kyiv. He often goes to bed after dawn, between 6:00 and 8:00 a.m. Again, overall sleep quality is normal, but daytime sleep is less beneficial for recovery.
And, of course, there are those who, despite the war, do not experience any noticeable sleep disturbances. This graph shows the indicators for a 22-year-old man. He goes to bed at approximately the same time, falls asleep quickly, and sleeps for an average of 6-7 hours.
During the research, all participants underwent cognitive sleep therapy. As a result, some of them showed significant differences in their scores at the beginning and end of the study, with noticeable improvements. This was the case, for example, with a 32-year-old woman from Kyiv.
Move the slider below the graph on the right to see changes in sleep quality.
The authors of the study claim that cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia is effective and can improve sleep quality during wartime. It does not involve taking any medication and is based on changing behavior and attitudes toward sleep.
General recommendations that may be helpful:
1. Go to bed and wake up at approximately the same time every day, even on weekends. This stabilizes your internal biological clock.
2. Avoid reading, working, watching the news, or surfing the internet on your phone in bed. This helps your brain associate bed exclusively with sleep.
3. If you cannot fall asleep within 15–20 minutes, get up, go to another room, and do something relaxing (read, meditate, listen to music). Only go back to bed when you feel sleepy.
4. Avoid caffeine, nicotine, and alcohol several hours before bedtime.
5. Create a favorable environment: a quiet, dark, cool room. Avoid bright light from screens at least an hour before bedtime.
We want to investigate how increased air raid alerts have affected Ukrainians' sleep. If you live in Ukraine and regularly record your sleep data using a fitness tracker throughout 2025, you can help us. Send your data to our email: texty.org.ua@gmail.com. In the subject line, write “sleep,” and in the body of the email, indicate the city/area and region where you live and what tracker you use to monitor your sleep.
Published: October 28, 2025
Contributors:
Yevheniia Drozdova,
Nadja Kelm
Texty.org.ua would like to thank
Anton Kurapov, co-author of the scientific study, lecturer at the Faculty of Psychology of Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, and postdoctoral researcher at the Faculty of Natural Sciences of the University of Salzburg, for his advice and assistance in preparing the material.
Chronic insomnia, anxiety, and PTSD have become common consequences of air raid alerts. We present the results of a study on civilians’ sleep during the war and the impact of cognitive therapy.
