The exponential increase in SARS-CoV-2 infection has impacted on a change in the professional and personal lifestyle of the world's population. Health professionals working on the front line experienced increased work hours and exposure to risk factors as a result of the high demand for severe cases. The hospital physiotherapist, one of those responsible for the therapeutic management of COVID-19, suffered repercussions from the pandemic, which possibly contributed to physical and mental exhaustion.

To analyze the quality of life and sleep of physiotherapists working on the front lines against COVID-19.

This is a cross-sectional study, involving physiotherapists of both sexes over the age of 18, working on the front line against COVID-19 in hospital units, who agreed to participate in the research by signing the term of free and informed consent (TCLE). Sociodemographic data, quality of life using the Short Form questionnaire (SF-36) and sleep index using the Pittsburgh were evaluated. Data collection took place from June to August 2022 via an electronic form developed by the researchers on the Google Forms platform.

A total of 37 individuals were analyzed, predominantly female (81.6%) with a mean age of 30.13 ± 4.52 and training time from 1 to 5 years (55.3%), 97.4% of whom were post-graduated with the weekly workload of 30 to 60 hours (71.1%), working on duty for 24 consecutive hours. The quality of life of the evaluated individuals showed unfavorable results (<70 points) in relation to the domains: general health status, social aspects, vitality, pain, and limitation by physical aspect. Regarding sleep quality, the domains that presented the worst indices were subjective sleep quality, sleep latency and habitual sleep efficiency.

The challenges in coping with the pandemic associated with excessive working hours were favorable factors in reducing the quality of life and sleep of physiotherapists working on the front line.

The development of this study made it possible to evaluate the effects of the pandemic on the mental health of professionals working on the front line, which may favor the development of actions aimed at the health of workers, considering that emotional disorders can last for a while, leading to the removal of work activities.