re: How hard is it to cover wood paneling w sheetrock?

All depends on your personal ghetto level. Several options.
1. you can just mud and sand your current paneling to a smooth finish, but will eventually have cracks and peeling long term. Every time you bump hard it will have issues. ghetto cheap to do

2. you can 1/4 inch sheetrock over your paneling but will have electrical outlet clearance issues when putting plates back on. Somewhat ghetto and 1/4" rock is cheap

3. The right thing to do is take the paneling down. you can strip a room of paneling with a hammer, crow bar, and nail puller in about 30 minutes. then check your insulation and fix accordingly, move your electrical boxes out 1/2" and then go back with a good quality rock and mud and sand accordingly. White people level and will cost time as well as bit of money.