Kicking the CRAP out of my husband--While Sleeping!

socknitster · Post by **socknitster** » Tue Jul 17, 2007 6:36 am

Just had to post this. This morning my husband asked me if I had a bad dream last night. I certainly did!

I was dreaming I was sick and weak and had to defend myself against someone with a knife, a very strange dream that involved vomiting copious amounts of pink goo (sorry, i'm the grand poobah of TMI!) which is odd since I don't vomit--even 4 1/2 months of pretty intense morning sickness couldn't make me toss my cookies.

So, in the dream I knew enough to use my strongest muscles to defend myself--I'm 6' tall and have strong legs due to my workouts on recumbent bike, eliptical trainer and weight machines.

Anyway I woke to my husband going, "hey! Hey! HEY!!!!!" Whilst I kicked the crap out of him!

I sleep on my back to prevent aerophagia, so it is beyond me how I found my target!

I thought REM sleep was supposed to arrest motor control, but I must have had a little leg control last night.

Do you have any weird dream/acting out stories?

Jen

Shari · Post by **Shari** » Tue Jul 17, 2007 7:04 am

Pre-xpap story
This was probably 17 or 18 years ago and I still think it is hilarious.
We lived in an old apartment that had an old refrigerator with a freezer that needed to be defrosted several times a year. I don't think the previous tenants had ever defrosted it. It was a mess, with thick ice built up all around it.
I had spent the entire day working on the freezer. All day long I was chipping out chunks of ice and putting them in a 5-gallon bucket to melt. My son, being a curious toddler, kept trying to play with the ice. A 5-gallon bucket with water in it is a drowning hazard for a toddler. So, I was repeatedly chasing him away from the bucket.
This fear of drowning must have crept into my subconscious because that night I dreamt that my son had fallen into the bucket. In my dream I reached out and snatched him out of the bucket. In reality I grabbed my husband’s pillow and yanked it out from under his head. I yanked the pillow with such force that I spun his head around. He was sleeping on his belly with his face turned away from me, until I snatched his pillow. He said he thought I was trying to pull start a lawnmower.
I realized what I had done and started laughing so hard I couldn't explain to him why I now had his pillow.

GaCRT · Post by **GaCRT** » Tue Jul 17, 2007 8:20 am

I have always as a child talked in my sleep. If I had a dream or any secrets to tell you could get them from me in my sleep. When I was a kid I slept with my parents often and whenever I did my mom would always end up on the couch and my dad would have bruises all over him from where I would kick and hit at him all night long. My husband now swears that I speak spanish in my sleep (odd and unbelievable to me since I can only speak minuimal spanish awake). I still act out my dreams and beat the crap out of my husband at night. He has taken to moving to the couch some nights since I abuse him so badly. I also grind my teeth in my sleep and so do my 2 kids. And both talk in their sleep but they don't kick and hit like I do.

kteague · Post by **kteague** » Tue Jul 17, 2007 8:43 am

My father had REM behavior disorder where he sleepwalked and acted out dreams. When my brother was an infant, Mom woke up at 4:30am to find dad with my brother in the stoller on their way out the door. When she asked where he was going, he said "to the park". There are stories galore, most much more dramatic and some scary. After a while my mom decided the kids couldn't sleep with him.

Socknitster, I'm curious as to if your data shows anything going on at the time you "attacked" your poor hubby? The reason I ask is that your dream had that vomiting piece. Before cpap treatment I had lots of silly dreams that all had an oral component (for lack of a better category term). I believe they happened at the time I was having apnea events. In them something or somebody was always choking, drowning, coughing, etc. After a while I started keeping a journal and I think I must have logged nearly 50. Haven't had any dreams wierd in that way since working out my cpap treatment.

Kathy

sharon1965 · Post by **sharon1965** » Tue Jul 17, 2007 10:31 am

Do you have any weird dream/acting out stories?

as someone who sleepwalked almost every night for as long as i can remember, you can imagine just how many of these i have...but one that sticks out as funny and especially bizarre is:

...one night i was dreaming that ants were marching in a line across my bedroom floor toward my very heavy solid maple nightstand and straight up the front of it...i was worried that they would come onto the bed...that's all i remember of the dream, but in the morning my hubby came home from working mids and i heard him say, "what the ....?" in an incredulous tone...i opened my eyes to find him standing staring at the two nightstands, which were now sitting in the middle of the room...the lamps were still on there, his clock, the phone etc.; we also had an area rug which was not disturbed...the only explanation was that i had picked up the heavy maple nightstands and moved them about 6 feet each! i had no recollection of doing so, obviously, and my hubby, who has had more than his share of 'interesting' experiences sharing a room with me, definitely thought i had moved to an all new level of weird! i certainly can't move those things any other time, i have no upper body strength!

jen, does that qualify as a weird story? there's plenty more where that came from...i'm here all week! try the veal! (ba-dum bum!)

HeatherN · Post by **HeatherN** » Tue Jul 17, 2007 11:25 am

I am the queen of weird stuff in my sleep but that is a whole other story! Hubby who is a hose head does a lot of sleep talking. Before his CPAP treatment one night he started whacking at me, I grabbed his arm and stopped him and he looked me dead in the face and said "who are you?" umm, your wife? He dreamed someone was attacking him. My favorite though is one night in his sleep he said very loudly "prepare to be boarded!" Wonder what he was dreaming about?

drummergirl410 · Post by **drummergirl410** » Tue Jul 17, 2007 12:30 pm

Oh, man! I've had some weird ones too. One night while I was still in elementary school, I dreamed I was doing homework. TH eteacher asked us to put our spellingwords in ABC order. The words were written on index cards and I was shifting the cards around to get ihem in thr right order before I wrote them down. I remember a feeling of half asleep, half awaye, and I was moving my hands in reality. Then I came to a couple of words I didn't know where they went. I got up and went to my parent's room. "Mom and dad will know these." I told my clearly delerious self. When I got there I had totally forgotten what I even came for. Mom got up and came over to me. I was burning up with a fever!

sharon1965 · Post by **sharon1965** » Tue Jul 17, 2007 12:41 pm

you reminded me of another good one involving the parents

when i was a kid/teenager i was a brutal slob...so messy you coudn't see my furniture for clothes and junk

one morning i woke up and looked around my neat-ish (?) room and thought, "right on" without pausing to wonder how it got that way...suddenly my mom came barreling into my room demanding to know where i got my nerve from! i followed her back to her room to find a huge pile of laundry on her bedroom floor... needless to say she wasn't impressed, but it has since made it into the family legends, along with many of my other nocturnal escapades...

no, i didn't participate in slumber parties/sleepovers

Snoredog · Post by **Snoredog** » Tue Jul 17, 2007 12:46 pm

are you taking any anti-depressants? Those can sometimes cause that, along with stress and tension, Mayo thinks they may be more serious. I used to sleep walk, so has my daughters, the oldest talks in her sleep, the youngest goes for nightly walks

http://www.rxpgnews.com/sleepdisorders/ ... 4493.shtml

search for "Acting out on dreams" and you'll find many reasons.

sharon1965 · Post by **sharon1965** » Tue Jul 17, 2007 12:48 pm

are you taking any anti-depressants?

Nope

socknitster · Post by **socknitster** » Tue Jul 17, 2007 12:52 pm

[quote="kteague"]My father had REM behavior disorder where he sleepwalked and acted out dreams. When my brother was an infant, Mom woke up at 4:30am to find dad with my brother in the stoller on their way out the door. When she asked where he was going, he said "to the park". There are stories galore, most much more dramatic and some scary. After a while my mom decided the kids couldn't sleep with him.

Socknitster, I'm curious as to if your data shows anything going on at the time you "attacked" your poor hubby? The reason I ask is that your dream had that vomiting piece. Before cpap treatment I had lots of silly dreams that all had an oral component (for lack of a better category term). I believe they happened at the time I was having apnea events. In them something or somebody was always choking, drowning, coughing, etc. After a while I started keeping a journal and I think I must have logged nearly 50. Haven't had any dreams wierd in that way since working out my cpap treatment.

Kathy

sharon1965 · Post by **sharon1965** » Tue Jul 17, 2007 12:57 pm

snoredog

eeek! i just checked out that link and that sure is scary..i was about to say that since cpap i've stopped having nightmares and i've stopped sleepwalking/acting out...(i still talk occasionally)...and i thought that was a good thing, but it states in the article that as the damage progresses, the acting out diminishes...hmmm, one more thing to worry about...i'm already on low-dose parkinson's medication for the plmd, maybe it'll help?

thanks for the link...i think

sharon

Snoredog · Post by **Snoredog** » Tue Jul 17, 2007 1:00 pm

Answer:
An e-Medicine, article on parasomnias discusses REM sleep disorder and its treatment states:

“REM sleep behavior disorder: REM sleep behavior disorder is dream-enacting behavior that includes talking, yelling, punching, kicking, sitting, jumping out of bed, arm flailing, and grabbing. An acute form may occur during withdrawal from ethanol or sedative-hypnotic drugs. The chronic form presents for evaluation following observations of bed partners.”

Concerning treatment, the author, Sharma notes:

o “Treatment for REM behavior disorder is initiated with clonazepam at 0.5-1.5 mg taken at bedtime. This medication has been shown to be beneficial in the long-term. Drug discontinuation often results in prompt relapse. The exact mechanism of action of clonazepam in patients with REM behavior disorder is not known, but its serotonergic properties may inhibit nocturnal motor activity in the brainstem and thus prevent arousals.
o Tricyclic antidepressants occasionally are used in the treatment of REM behavior disorder.
o Imipramine, which has serotonergic effects, has been used in the treatment of REM behavior disorder, but the effects are unpredictable.
o Anecdotal reports of levodopa/carbidopa, gabapentin, and clonidine have been published, but the benefit of these drugs has not been systemically evaluated.”

In the section on medications, Sharma adds:

“The most common drugs used to treat these disorders are benzodiazepines and anticonvulsants. The general aim of medication treatment is to prevent arousal out of sleep or to suppress REM sleep. Currently, no medications are available that are indicated for these disorders; all medications used for these disorders are used off-label.” [1]

GPNotebook also considers the treatment of REM sleep disorder:

• "Safety precautions and good general sleep hygiene measures are recommended for individuals with a parasomnia such as REM sleep behaviour disorder, as the disorder can be exacerbated by sleep deprivation and various other factors. When the events are frequent or particularly dramatic, medication with a long- or medium-acting benzodiazepine, such as clonazepam, at bedtime is effective therapy in most cases.” [2]

The Merck Manual offers similar information:

“Traditionally, most patients have been treated with clonazepam 0.5 to 2 mg po at bedtime. However, some recent evidence suggests that melatonin may be effective and safer in patients with an underlying degenerative brain disorder (eg, dementia with Lewy bodies, Parkinson's disease, multiple system atrophy).” [3]...

The above found here:
http://www.clinicalanswers.nhs.uk/index ... stion=5226

Having taken melatonin for more than a dozen years, I would try that over any prescription drug.

sharon1965 · Post by **sharon1965** » Tue Jul 17, 2007 1:02 pm

Researchers have reported that as the brain-degenerating disease progresses, RBD may decrease in frequency and intensity or resolve completely, says Dr. Tippmann-Peikert.

this is the part i mentioned in my last post...what a paradox

sharon1965 · Post by **sharon1965** » Tue Jul 17, 2007 1:08 pm

snoredog

as you may have gleaned from many of my posts, i too am opposed to taking prescription drugs willy nilly, but i've become so desparate to feel better that i agreed to the low dose requip...the pharm. tells me that the only lower dose is no dose...

however, i would always prefer to avoid pharmaceuticals

do you know if melatonin is suggested for treating plmd?

i took it briefly but found my nightmares much more pronounced and frequent, but that was before cpap...

is it ok to take melatonin long term? i thought i read on the bottle that you should take it for only 3 months at a time? (while ago, not sure now)

thanks for posting those links...although i'm not sure what to do with the info now

sharon

Kicking the CRAP out of my husband--While Sleeping!

Kicking the CRAP out of my husband--While Sleeping!

Acting out dreams

Re: Acting out dreams