Ask your doctor – 2

So – here’s the thing… (this is – should you be wondering- a continuation of my last post, ‘Ask your doctor – 1‘).

Over the last year or so I have experienced a few random instances of an odd phenomenon connected to sleep and to dreaming.  I have always dreamed vividly, but on these occasions I have woken abruptly from the dream to find myself ‘acting’ it out. In other words – if in the dream I was being attacked and tried to retaliate – I would awake and find myself doing just that.

This is, of course, somewhat worrying because of the potential to cause injury to myself or to The Girl. Clearly something needed to be done about it and – naturally –  I did what I should not have done; I consulted Dr Google!

Dr Google knows a lot about parasomnias and in this instance he directed me to some literature on the subject of REM Behavioural Disorder (RBD). It seems that this is a dysfunction of the muscle atonia that the body utilises during REM sleep to prevent one from physically engaging whilst dreaming. This sort of thing can, sadly, occur as one gets older.

The worry lies less in the immediate behavioural issue – the symptoms of which may be ameliorated by such treatments as taking a nightly dose of Melatonin – but in that RBD is thought to be a long-term precursor to other neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinsons or dementia with Lewy bodies. These are a considerably less pleasant prospect – even if years in the future.

Dr G also offers the sop that that not everyone with RBD goes on to develop Parkinsons and indeed that there are other sleep disorders that mimic RBD. One should not, of course, in any case rely on the good(?) doctor for diagnosis and I took notice of this. Clearly the thing to do was to actually talk to my own doctor – which I duly did (talk only – of course – because one doesn’t actually get to see one’s doctor these days – only to chat over the phone!).

With a new scent to pursue my doctor was immediately off and running. He quickly arranged for me to have a head CT (scan) at our local hospital – and he further referred me to a sleep specialist (that’s not someone who just sleeps a lot!). This all took place back in the autumn (Fall) and I promise that I will shortly finish this saga in a third and final post – to let gentle readers know where that all went.

Bet you can’t wait!