REM Behavior Disorder?

The doctor suspects my daughter may have a REM behavior disorder. Does anyone have any experience/knowledge about this disorder?

Follow this link for more info:

http://www.sleepdisorderchannel.net/rem/

Regards

About a month ago I was diagnosed with REM Behavior Disorder. I've been active during REM sleep for over 21 years. I would hit, kick, punch, slap and try to shove my husband out of bed. Many times over the years I have mentioned this to doctors but none seemed at all concerned about this. I recently went to a neurologist because I’m having memory/cognitive problems. I told her that I'm active during dreams. That dh puts a wall of pillows between us to protect himself from me and that the dogs will not sleep on the bed. She thought the memory/cognitive problems may be due to a lack of restorative sleep caused by sleep apnea and ordered a polysomnograph. (I started researching sleep apnea and found this site). The polysomnograph showed I do not have sleep apnea. The polysomnograph recorded activity during REM sleep when my body should have been in REM paralysis. The lack of restorative sleep was from REM Behavior Disorder. She prescribed clonazepam and I’m finally waking up less tired than when I went to bed. I’m beginning to see improvement with my memory and cognitive functioning.

Before I found out that I did not have sleep apnea I wondered how I would ever keep a mask on all night. When I was a teenager I would remove my retainers while asleep. As an adult I removed breathe right strips. I would find them neatly folded in half on my night stand so I know they weren’t just coming off of my nose. I don’t know if these activities happened during REM sleep but I know that I use to be very active while asleep. I use to do what my dh referred to as a bed flip (side to side not head to toe, thankfully). I would twist my body and with one leg push my self up and do a 360 degree turn in the air. Your daughter my be purposefully taking the mask off during REM sleep or the mask may be coming off due to the amount of activity she is doing during REM.

RBD wrote: The polysomnograph recorded activity during REM sleep when my body should have been in REM paralysis

REM sleep - when the brain is dreaming - is normaly accompanied by muscular paralysis - which is meant to disocnnect the dreaming brain from the sleeping body. Normaly, the only mark of a dream is Rapid Eye Movement - and this can be the wildest, most active dream you can imagine - you may be dreaming that you're playing basket ball, jumping up and down, waving your hands - whatever - but your body is absolutely still, except for your eye movements. This is a protective mechanism.
Acting out parts of you dream, while you sleep, moving about during REM are a kind of neurological disorder.

RBD wrote: Your daughter my be purposefully taking the mask off during REM sleep or the mask may be coming off due to the amount of activity she is doing during REM.

I agree. If you haven't already, you should involve a neurologist in the attempts to help your daughter keep her mask on.
O.