Rbd Quotes

I mentioned that during REM sleep we experience our most complex and vivid dreams. It is during this time that projections from the mid-brain to the spinal cord cause paralysis (also called ‘atonia’), from the neck down. This is thought to prevent us from acting out our dreams. Support for this idea comes from a condition known as REM sleep behaviour disorder (RBD), where there is no or little atonia during REM sleep. I will discuss this in more detail later, but RBD is an early sign of the future development of Parkinson’s disease.40 At one end of the severity scale of RBD, individuals just move

their arms and legs about, but some individuals can experience sleep talking, shouting, screaming or even physical violence. Unfortunately, RBD is most often acted upon after harm has been caused to a sleeping partner.41 A famous, and widely reported case in the UK media, involved Brian Thomas, a ‘decent and devoted’ husband who strangled and killed his wife while on holiday. In his dream he was attacking an intruder, but in reality, and very sadly, it was his wife. The Crown Prosecution Service accepted he had not been in control of his actions and the jury at Swansea crown court were ordered to acquit Thomas. The only thing that Mr Thomas remembered of his dream was the break-in by an intruder.