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Mixed-effects analysis reveals that variability in mood and sleep quality matters more than average levels after COVID-19.
Symptomatic COVID-19 was associated with greater instability of mood and sleep quality, despite unchanged average levels. These results illustrate that the variability of mental-health outcomes can carry signal that mean-level analyses miss, and argue for incorporating within-person instability when evaluating the psychological consequences of health shocks.
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Viola et al. (2026) studied this question.
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