Eyes open, aware of what is happening around them, but unable to move a single muscle. This state lasts a few seconds, which terrifies those affected by it. It is called sleep paralysis and more and more people infected with Covid are experiencing it. It is precisely the impotence that follows the inability to move that prompts patients to seek help from an expert. “In these cases, explains Professor Michele Terzaghi, head of the Sleep Medicine Center of the Mondino Foundation – we must not panic. It can last from a few seconds to a few minutes, but at a certain point the block passes by itself ”.
The link with Omicron
The Covid disease caused by the Omicron variant, also thanks to vaccines, seems less aggressive than that of the Delta. But among the symptoms related to it there are new ones, precisely that of sleep paralysis, which emerged in the first place from the reports relating to positive patients in England. The onset of the Omicron variant side effect, linked to the REM sleep phase, is challenging scientists. Sleep therapy expert Dr. Kat Lederle said in an interview with Mail Online that “it could be the virus that has an impact on sleep regulation in the brain, as neurological effects have been reported from Covid. But sleep paralysis. and night sweats could be mostly due to the stress that comes from the big changes in the way we are spending our lives. “
The English case
As reported by the Express newspaper and other British outlets, social networks are filling up with posts in which positive people report significant sleep disturbances, many of which complain of sleep paralysis. Rest disorders have increased significantly since the beginning of the pandemic, not only due to the physical consequences caused by the virus, but also due to the disruption of our lives, including lockdowns, quarantines, social distancing, deprivation of personal liberties and all the other restrictions that have catalyzed anxiety, depression and in some cases a real post traumatic stress syndrome. Sleep paralysis, however, appears to be more prevalent since the Omicron variant began to circulate
Identikit of the phenomenon
The phenomenon of sleep paralysis has been known for years. Professor Dr. Terzaghi confirms this: “It is a parasomnia (unusual behaviors, such as sleepwalking, which occur just before falling asleep, during sleep or upon awakening) and it concerns REM sleep. It is a benign phenomenon, known with a certain prevalence, because up to 40% of adults in life have experienced it at least once. And not much is known about it from an epidemiological point of view, given that it is a benign phenomenon “. How does it manifest itself? “We have the sensation of being awake, but paralyzed in the skeletal muscles – explains Terzaghi -. There is the feeling of wakefulness and the inability to move. So it is a distressing situation, and for those who are anxious it can be a very impactful experience. But fortunately it does not last long: at a certain point we unlock, spontaneously or because touched from the outside, and we return to the previous state, without paralysis and mnotor deficit “.
What causes temporary paralysis
Experts have long studied the mechanism that can trigger sleep paralysis. “From the point of view of physiopathogenesis it is a sleep dissociation – continues the neurologist -. The brain is partly awake, while the rest is asleep. The first area of the brain is responsible for awareness of consciousness, the second for REM sleep, and therefore responsible for sleep paralysis. Which can happen at any time: when you are asleep, upon waking, during sleep or when you wake up or fall asleep. But what causes it more easily is having an irregular sleep pattern. Then there are episodes that facilitate it: anxiety disorder, psychiatric disorders of a certain entity, bipolar, or the use of anxiolytics. Finally, there are sleep paralysis associated with other conditions, such as narcolepsy, but these are rare cases. There can be oneiric or hallucinatory presence, but it is not frequent. Waking is usually full and conscious.
What to do when it arrives
Sleep paralysis can occur one or more times. But what we must remember, and communicate to those affected by it, is that “nothing will happen to him and that he is not in danger of life”. “I tried it myself – remembers Terzaghi -. Don’t be afraid, even if you have to be aware that it can come back. Therefore it is advisable to take countermeasures: observe sleep rhythms, avoid taking anxiolytics and stimulants before sleeping. Finally, should it happen again, then it would be advisable to consult a doctor to obtain an effective diagnosis “.
The Mondino expert warns: “With the arrival of Covid, even if the data in our possession does not allow us to make associations, neither from an epidemiological point of view, nor from a neuropathogenesis point of view, it is possible that there is disturbed sleep, or altered by quarantine phase “. “All this can facilitate latent episodes – concludes Terzaghi -. We have observed that, if in the first Covid period, the most widespread problem was insomnia, now it is not. But at the same time the phenomenon of sleep paralysis has been amplified. This leads us to advocate the hypothesis that the virus affects sleep-wake alternation and in particular REM sleep “.
.