To learn how to cope with RBD, I met with a sleep psychologist and psychiatrist. While I was relieved to have a diagnosis, I was also really worried. 'What It's Really Like To Have Chronic Insomnia'.Ultimately, most people who have RBD end up seeking help for the same reason I did: because their sleep-acting has become dangerous. Often, they respond to them as you’d expect-by jumping out of bed, running, punching, or kicking. Unfortunately, many people living with RBD have super-scary dreams where they’re being chased or attacked. I was lucky in that my dreams were usually pretty pleasant. This isn’t real life-so don’t move!” But that nerve pathway doesn’t work for people like me who have this disorder (also referred to as RBD).Īs a result, we physically act out vivid, action-packed dreams. This is because your brain uses a nerve pathway to send a message to your muscles that basically says, “Hey! You’re sleeping and dreaming. That’s the stage of sleep where you do most of your dreaming on and off throughout the night. Courtesy After the sleep study, I was diagnosed with REM sleep behavior disorder.Īs the sleep doctor explained to me, most people experience a temporary paralysis during rapid-eye movement (REM) sleep. How could they know what was going on if I didn’t do anything? What I didn’t know was that the sensors had been able to pick up that something strange was happening to me at night, even though I didn’t move.Ĭamille in 2016, before a sleep study. When I woke up, I was worried-I hadn’t acted out any dreams. The night of the sleep study, sensors were placed all over my body for a polysomnogram test which would monitor my heart, breathing, brain activity, and arm and leg movements. But to figure out exactly what was going on with me, I’d have to go back for a nocturnal sleep study, they told me. I immediately contacted their sleep clinic to schedule an appointment.Īfter a questionnaire, physical exam, and neurological exam, the sleep doctor suspected that I had a parasomnia (a sleep disorder that causes abnormal behavior while you’re falling asleep, sleeping, or waking up, like sleepwalking or having sleep terrors). I went online to look up my symptoms and came across Washington University’s Sleep Medicine Center in Brentwood, Missouri. Courtesy After the window incident, I was finally compelled to start researching my sleep-acting problem. When I was alone, I wasn’t safe.Ĭamille as a child, around the time when she first can remember sleep-acting. That experience made me realize my sleep-acting was happening more often than I’d thought. I could have fallen out of that window! I was really scared. It was raining in my dream-and in real life-and I woke up bent out of our second-story back window with the rain hitting me. What finally led me to seek treatment, though, was when I had a dream that the Salvation Army was coming to our house to pick up some donations. Another night, I woke up clawing at the wall because I was trying to rescue kittens in a dream. One night, I woke up holding the front door open to welcome students into school (I’m an art teacher IRL). My sleep-acting seemed to get worse when I was stressed out, and I’d dream about all sorts of weird things. For the first time, I was home alone at bedtime. In 2009, that changed when my husband began working night shifts. Since I always lived with other people-my parents and sisters, roommates, husband-there was always somebody there to look out for me. They’d just tell me I was dreaming and lead me back to bed. Play icon The triangle icon that indicates to playĪs the years went on, my family members got used to finding me walking around at night.
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