This is a redo poll based on some helpful feedback of my earlier post. This is just for fun and out of my interest in the psychological aspects of living with chronic illness and the whole body/mind connection.

Not only that; there are other things that come to mind on compensatory measures.

Amputees experience what is known as phantom limb. This is where the person feels pain in the area where they lost their limb because the brain does not perceive anything is missing. I wondered if this something like this happens with people who lose loss of their arms and/or legs. Does our brain see us as "intact" as a compensatory mechanism? Or is it our mind and the power of positive thinking that makes us impervious to disease and disability in our dreams?

It is also widely known that many PWP have REM Sleep Behavior Disorder. This involves acting out dreams. The fascinating part is that most of us are in a state of sleep paralysis while with this condition, our bodies are in a beta or awake state opposite of where our brain is. Even more interesting, when acting out dreams, the PWP moves normally. No bradykinesia or tremor! Is this also some sort of compensatory nod to being whole once again? Seems if they could study this more closely it may yield some new insights into PD and maybe harness what is occurring so it transfers to our waking state.

I'll be interested to see the results.

Laura

One correction. A person with REM behavior disorder moves anything but normally. We are violent and can even injure ourselves and/or others. It's damn scary but can be controlled by medicine thank heavens.

The only time I am completely tremor-free is when I'm asleep. LemonLime had previously posted an extensive article about tremor dominant PD, in which the author stated there are no tremors in sleep because the locus coerelus (sp) is not active during sleep or something to that effect. I wish they could figure out how to deactivate the LC when awake.

[QUOTE=Conductor71;953636]This is a redo poll based on some helpful feedback of my earlier post. This is just for fun and out of my interest in the psychological aspects of living with chronic illness and the whole body/mind connection.

Not only that; there are other things that come to mind on compensatory measures.

Amputees experience what is known as phantom limb. This is where the person feels pain in the area where they lost their limb because the brain does not perceive anything is missing. I wondered if this something like this happens with people who lose loss of their arms and/or legs. Does our brain see us as "intact" as a compensatory mechanism? Or is it our mind and the power of positive thinking that makes us impervious to disease and disability in our dreams?


Laura,
Years ago I posted on a different pd forum and curiously there were several of us that all had a similar recurring dream - one of being in a big building and getting lost and confused.

Lately the recurring theme that occurs for me is being at an old apartment building that is really run down and going through old stored furniture left behind.

Another recurring dream I used to have was of being in a big boat trying to navigate very shallow murky water - a friend of mine who also has pd and is an artist painted this very image from his own dreamtime.

perhaps it would be useful to intend a dream that would answer how to heal our condition .

Dr. Perlmutter has done research with stroke patients and brain scans:


"This simple mechanical structure/function relationship began to unravel, at least for me, in the late 1980s, when I began to note that some patients would regain considerable function of a particular area of the body following a stroke, even though there had been no observable change in their brain imaging studies. So, while a patient’s MRI continued to show damage in, for example, the part of the brain that controls the left hand, not infrequently the brain would somehow “heal” and functionality of the left hand would return. As more and more neurologists, therapists, and patients observed this unusual phenomenon, neuroscientists began to offer explanations that contradicted the prevailing view of the brain’s abilities."

for complete article:
http://www.healyourlife.com/author-d...-up-your-brain

Sorry, Nan. This is true---I meant no PD symptoms.

Well this is funny, I never was aware of my PD in dreams until last night - I was up late, read this thread and did have a PD dream! I was in Yosemite (used to hike there a lot before balance issues) and scrambling down hill, maybe it was Half Dome trail and jumping from rock to rock - when I was down the trail I remarked to my friends "hey, my Parkinson's symptoms are gone!". So maybe I can program my dreams from now on - time to check out lucid dreaming perhaps

-Brian