A man was photographed with his back to the camera, with what appears to be wilts in a large portion of his bare back.
The image was uploaded by X (formerly Twitter) user Rita @r4ralx, who accompanied the upload with a tweet: “He woke up with this marks on his back. What’s the cause? What should we do?”
While many of her X followers had gone on to suggest various remedies for the wilts, Iya Magazine looked up the matter in health books and this is our finding!
According to online platform Healthline, if you’re waking up with unexplained scratches or scratch-like marks on your body, there could be a number of possible causes.
“The most likely reason for the appearance of scratches is that you’re unknowingly scratching yourself while you sleep,” the health platform says; noting, however, that there are also rashes and skin conditions that can sometimes resemble scratch marks.
Apart from possibly scratching oneself while sleeping or someone sharing the bed with you scratching you while half-asleep, experts say the wilts might be caused by a condition known as dermatographia.
Dermatographia, also known as skin writing, is a condition whereby your skin has an outsized reaction to light scratching, rubbing, or pressure.
“The skin surrounding scratches, even very light scratches, becomes red and raised. The raised marks will usually go away on their own within 30 minutes or so,” the health platform says.
“This condition is harmless and affects about 2 to 5 percent of the population,” it adds.
What you can do
Experts at Medical News Today ask anyone who experience such a thing to determine the severity of the scratches. “If you wake up with scratch marks and they quickly fade away on their own, they could simply be from dermatographia or just light scratching while you sleep,” the scientists say.
They advise that daily antihistamines can help to curb dermatographia, while some scratch marks may not require treatment.
They note that, in some cases, an underlying skin condition may be to blame. They counsel, “Speak with a dermatologist or doctor if the scratch marks take a long time to heal, look infected, bleed, itch or hurt.”
