Dream-enactment disorder: Number of patients went up by four times during pandemic

Dream-enactment behaviour is a phenomenon in which a person physically acts out vivid, unpleasant dreams while sleeping in the rapid eye movement (REM) stage, which is the deepest stage of sleep, with vocal noises and quick, frequently violent actions of the limbs.

Researchers have discovered that during the epidemic, the incidence of people with dream-enactment behaviour, also known as rapid eye movement sleep behaviour disorder (RBD), increased by two to four times.

COVID-19's long-term consequences, according to the study's authors, can produce neuropsychiatric symptoms and anomalies in COVID-19 patients.

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Even though muscle paralysis is supposed to happen during REM sleep, people with RBD don't get it, making it difficult for them to get a decent night's sleep and act out their dreams.

"They may punch or flail their arms in the air, make running movements, or even jump out of bed, sometimes resulting in injuries to themselves or their partner," study author Prof Yaping Liu of the Chinese University of Hong Kong stated.

Officials arrived at their results after analysing data from the International COVID-19 Sleep Study (ICOSS), which took place during the epidemic between May and August 2020. The online survey asked participants if they had had RBD during the pandemic and gathered data from 15 countries around the world. Around 26,539 people participated in the survey.

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