Ever wonder what REM sleep behavior disorder is?  Well, when you go to sleep every night, you go through different sleep cycles.  Some of the time your body and mind are completely at rest and at other times your mind is just as active as when it is awake.  This latter phase of sleep is called the REM cycle.  REM stands for rapid eye movement.  It happens during the time of the night when you are dreaming.  Your brain becomes active, your eyes move, your breathing quickens, and your muscles become mildly paralyzed.  This paralysis happens so that your body won’t act out the events that are taking place in your mind.  However, if you suffer from REM sleep behavior disorder you will find yourself acting out portions of your dreams.

While it is often amusing to watch a sleeping dog running and salivating and speculate on the content of his dreams, when a human’s REM sleep is disturbed there can be much more serious consequences.  Most people that suffer from REM sleep behavior disorder display their symptoms in a violent manner.  This can either cause danger to themselves or their sleeping partner.  Sufferers may fail, punch, kick, or jump when they are in their REM cycle.  This action isn’t specifically directed at anything in their physical world but it can still be injurious.  Depending on an individual’s physical strength, he or she can actually break bones or furniture during episodes of their REM sleep behavior disorder.

Unfortunately, the cause of this sleep disorder is thus far unknown.  Doctors think that it is probably correlated with other neurological disorders as a significant percentage of people who experience REM disorder eventually end up suffering from Parkinson’s disease as well.  Most of these people are middle-aged and elderly men, though every type of person can experience REM sleep behavior disorder.  Younger sufferers will often display symptoms for a period of time following a traumatic or stressful event.  After the vivid memory of the trauma fades, the symptoms will also fade.

For some people, medication is a good option to decrease the symptoms of this disorder.  Other people have benefited from therapy.  However, while a medicine called Clonazepam suppresses or reduces symptoms in a majority of patients, there is no standardized treatment at the present moment.  Instead, people are advised to keep their sleeping environment as benign as possible.  For instance, a mattress on the floor is much safer than a standard bed and frame as one cannot fall out of bed nor can one injure oneself on a metal or wooden frame.  Surrounding the sleeping area with pillows and blankets while at the same time removing any sharp edges and hard surfaces are also good ways to keep people suffering from REM sleep behavior disorder safe.  This person should also sleep alone until the symptoms have passed.

Depending on the individual the symptoms will strengthen or lessen in severity in a cyclical fashion or they will keep increasing to the point where a sufferer will need to get medical attention.  Even if medication does work, the symptoms will return if the dosage is lessened.  Therefore REM sleep behavior disorder is a chronic disease whose cure has thus far evaded doctors.

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