Literature collection of the CovAmInf workgroup.
Editors Joshua T. Berryman Abdul Mannan Baig Artemi Bendandi Daniel Bonhenry Mattheos A.G. Koffas
Anna Heidbreder, Thomas Sonnweber, Ambra Stefani, Abubaker Ibrahim, Matteo Cesari, Melanie Bergmann, Elisabeth Brandauer, Ivan Tancevski, Judith Löffler-Ragg, Birgit Högl
PubMed: 33588262 DOI: 10.1016/j.sleep.2021.01.051
11 patients were evaluated for REM sleep behavior disorder (RBD) 60 days after being diagnosed with COVID-19 infection. Video polysomnograms showed evidence of REM sleep without atonia, an early sign of RBD, in 4 of these patients. A separate case-control study, REM sleep without atonia was evident in 9/25 patients following infection compared to 3/25 healthy controls (https://doi.org/10.1093/sleep/zsac079.552). Using an online survey, 21,870 people were asked to self-report symptoms of REM sleep behavior disorder. The prevalence of lifetime and weekly dream-enactment behaviors increased by 1.8- and 2.9-times following COVID-19 infection (https://doi.org/10.1111/jsr.13613). The potential implication of these findings warrants follow-up with a clinical trial using video polysomnogram to determine the risk of RBD subsequent to COVID-19 infection.