REM dreams/sleep
 

I did a quick search of this forum on REM sleep and found only minor references so thought I’d post my situation.

I have been having bad acting out of my dreams for the past 6-12 months. While I have never hit another person in anger in real life, I have become the hero of the oppressed. I take care of the bullies and I save those in trouble. I wake up punching the daylights out of my pillow or my recliner. I’ve fallen on the floor trying to crawl over someone in between me and the bad guy. A couple of nights ago I dreamt a bear was attacking a woman so I circled around behind the bear to distract it and ran into two other bears. One attacked me and started to eat me. It was an out of body experience as I watched myself being eaten by a big brown bear.

My kids say I yell in my sleep but I never remember the dreams associated with the yelling. Just a few nights ago my daughter, who lives in my adjacent duplex, was up with her baby and said she went to the window to see who was fighting outside then realized it was just me!!

I lost a significant other because she was afraid to sleep in the same bed.

Has anyone else had any similar experiences or have any comments?

been there, done that......
 

I used to have them. my wife opined that she should get combat pay to sleep with me. I figured it was the Mirapex.

I sleep like a log, post DBS though.


Charlie

Sleep is a big one
 

A mistake that I have made several times is to go on a music jag where I go to bed with a bunch of mp3s and listen until I fall asleep and they keep playing. After a few nights in a row of that I start paying a very real price in terms of function. REM disruption is a very real danger. I haven't tried melatonin but that is one claim for it.

Circadian rhythms in general get out of whack with PD.

I'm fortunate,
 

or I should say my wife is fortunate, that my RSD episodes were (are) few and mostly relatively benign. The one exception is the one where I dreamed I was throttling the "bad guy" and woke up with my hands around her throat. Needless to say, she woke up first and called my name, which awakened me. Prior to that time, the few episodes involved mostly running leg movements and some arm thrashing. I've had no episodes for a couple of years (that she has told me about). I also had several episodes years before PD Dx.

I had the same problem with acting out my dreams.:eek: My neurologist prescribed 0.5mg. of clonazapam which I take every night, usually about an hour before bedtime. It has worked miracles for me. I no longer have wild or combative fights that had me kicking, swinging and punching the bad guy that was trying to hurt or kill me. I now have normal dreams and my husband doesn't have to worry that he'll be attacked in the middle of the night!

REM sleep disorders are one of the main reasons I believe PD is pathologically related to Narcolepsy. See my website for more info on my crazy hypothesis. Here are links to the relevant studies.

Hallucinations, REM sleep, and Parkinson’s disease


Hypocretin (orexin) loss in Parkinson's disease.

info 4 you -dear dale -
 

There are more than 70 different sleep disorders that are generally classified into one of three categories:

lack of sleep (e.g., insomnia),

disturbed sleep (e.g., obstructive sleep apnea), and

excessive sleep (e.g., narcolepsy).

In most cases, sleep disorders can be easily managed once they are properly diagnosed. Insomnia is the most common sleep disorder. It occurs more often in women and in the elderly.

The amount of sleep that a person needs to function normally depends on several factors (e.g., age). Infants sleep most of the day (about 16 hours); teenagers usually need about 9 hours a day; and adults need an average of 7 to 8 hours a day. Although elderly adults require about as much sleep as young adults, they usually sleep for shorter periods and spend less time in deep stages of sleep. About 50% of adults over the age of 65 have some type of sleep disorder, although it is not clear whether this is a normal part of aging or a result of medications that older people commonly use.

Falling asleep and waking up are controlled by various chemical changes in the brain and in the blood. Foods and medicines that alter the balance of these chemicals also affect how well we sleep. Caffeine, for example, can cause insomnia (lack of sleep). Antidepressants can cause a loss of REM (rapid eye movement) sleep, as can smoking and alcohol. Smoking and alcohol also can result in a loss of deep sleep. Both REM and deep sleep are essential parts of the normal sleep cycle.

What is Sleep?
Sleep is a dynamic process during which the brain is very active. There are recognized stages of sleep, each of which is characterized by a different type of brain wave activity.

Stages of Sleep
There are five stages of sleep that cycle over and over again during a single night's rest: stages 1, 2, 3, 4 and REM (rapid eye movement). Stages 1 through 4 are also known as non-rapid eye movement sleep (NREM). About 50% of sleep time is spent in stage 2 and about 20% is spent in REM (normally more than 2 hours a night in adults). A complete sleep cycle, from the beginning of stage 1 to the end of REM, usually takes about an hour and a half.

Stage 1 is light sleep during which the muscles begin to relax and a person can be easily awakened. During stage 2, brain activity slows down and eye movement stops. Stages 3 and 4 comprise deep sleep, during which all eye and muscle movement ceases. It can be difficult to wake a person during deep sleep. Stage 3 is characterized by very slow brain waves (delta waves), interspersed with small, quick waves. In stage 4, the brain waves are all delta waves.

It is during deep sleep that some people sleepwalk and children may experience bedwetting. It is during REM sleep that dreams occur. The muscles of the body stiffen, the eyes move, the heart rate increases, breathing becomes more rapid and irregular, and the blood pressure rises.

http://www.neurologychannel.com/sleepdisorders/

I have a friend w/ PD that has more like PTSD w/ his PD, but then again he was in the military?

so sorry try rick's advice - they have music for brain wave health...
I also listen to it...no words -just better deep sleep - rem sleep is healing.

Just my annual income here (i.e., two cents)....

To start with, I've been a "kicker" all my life (I suppose this may be the related syndrome of PLMD).

More recently, I have had an encephalitic parkinsonian syndrome and have had the more mild CNS symptoms of it since 2001, which come to think of it, is about when I started having instances of minor REM sleep behavior disturbances. I had a tendency namely to punch into the air during my more angry dreams, and once my fist decided to go straight for a (cinder-backed) dorm room wall. This represents the only injury the issue has ever caused me.

To my knowledge, my RBSD hasn't gotten any worse (but I can't say the same for my parkinsonism!!).

Also, throwing out a warning here... to the users of sedative-hypnotics (especially Ambien/zolpidem), RBSD and other amnesiatic sleep behavior disorder is a very well-known side effect of these meds. There've even been cases documented of sleep-driving(!). So take care.

I've had some odd episodes in the past where I've ended up punching the wall next to me. In my dream I was fighting someone and my fists were flailing.

John

fellow rem sleepwalker don't have pd
 

i have read that while it is true that most sleepwalkers do it in deep sleep, it is rare when we do it in rem sleep while dreaming (except in children who usually grow out of it).

i have had experiences similar to dales. for example, after watching a miniseries where russia invades the us, i awoke in the closet where i had drug my saddle, a pellet gun, and was aiming the gun at the door. in the dream the roof had been blown off of the house and russian helicopters were circling overhead. i have also woke up after diving over the couch and hitting the wall with my head. in the dream i was dodging samurai swords.

i have also seen research that sleepwalking often leads to pd. i do not have it, but perhaps of interest to heidi, my brainwaves are "characteristic of someone who hallucinates". i have also gone from sleepy but awake to sleepwalking without ever going to bed. is that technically a hallucination? or narcolepsy?

i tired of going to sleep specialists as they always called it my "alleged sleepwalking" and prescribed nothing.

to dale. when i did something like shaking my ex-bf in my sleep he would wake up swinging. he got that in the military and i was always lucky and he never connected. he used to tell me i had better not do that or i would get slugged. however, i was not able to turn off the sleepwalking. i never hurt anybody but i realize the potential was there. mostly i just hurt myself by walking out of two story windows and such. anyway, i feel for you and you are not alone.