Sleep studies done in a small series of 11 post-acute covid patients showed REM without atonia in 4/11. This is considered a harbinger of neurodegenerative disease, such as Parkinson's.
We don't see this very often when we read sleep studies. Not good. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33588262/
We don't see this very often when we read sleep studies. Not good. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33588262/
These patients got sleep studies because of suspicion of a sleep disorder. This wasn't a random sample of post-covid patients.
I really worry about patients who experience disrupted sleep or excessive sleepiness after COVID.
I really worry about patients who experience disrupted sleep or excessive sleepiness after COVID.
Atonia is lack of muscle tone. Your body is designed to not move while you are dreaming, so you don't act out your dreams. Acting out your dreams is bad and can lead to a lot of injuries.
In fatal cases, SARS-CoV-2 has been found to invade the brainstem and cause T-cell inflammation there and in the basal ganglia. The basal ganglia is critical for muscle tone regulation -- that is the part of the body that degenerates in Parkinson's disease.thelancet.com/article/S1474-…
REM without atonia can be associated with some medications, most notably antidepressants, and we don’t know if those cases will lead to neurodegenerative disease. But none of the patients in the study were on antidepressants.
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