Rapid Eye Movement Behavior Disorder

Rapid Eye Movement Behavior Disorder

Rapid eye movement sleep behaviour disorder (RBD) is a sleep disorder (more specifically a parasomnia) that involves abnormal behaviour during the sleep phase with rapid eye movement (REM sleep). It was first described in 1986.

The major and arguably only abnormal feature of RBD is loss of muscle atonia (paralysis) during otherwise intact REM sleep. This is the stage of sleep in which most vivid dreaming occurs. The loss of motor inhibition leads to a wide spectrum of behavioural release during sleep. This extends from simple limb twitches to more complex integrated movement, in which sufferers appear to be unconsciously acting out their dreams. These behaviours can be violent in nature and in some cases will result in injury to either the patient or their bed partner.

Read more about Rapid Eye Movement Behavior Disorder:  Symptoms, Causes, Treatment, Epidemiology, In Non-humans

Famous quotes containing the words rapid, eye, movement, behavior and/or disorder:

    “More rapid than eagles his coursers they came,
    And he whistled, and shouted, and called them by name:
    “Now, Dasher! now, Dancer! now, Prancer and Vixen!
    On, Comet! on, Cupid! on, Donder and Blitzen!
    To the top of the porch! to the top of the wall!
    Now dash away! dash away! dash away all!””
    —Clement Clarke Moore (1779–1863)

    “How should the world be luckier if this house,
    Where passion and precision have been one
    Time out of mind, became too ruinous
    To breed the lidless eye that loves the sun?”
    —William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)

    “You watched and you saw what happened and in the accumulation of episodes you saw the pattern: Daddy ruled the roost, called the shots, made the money, made the decisions, so you signed up on his side, and fifteen years later when the women’s movement came along with its incendiary manifestos telling you to avoid marriage and motherhood, it was as if somebody put a match to a pile of dry kindling.”
    —Anne Taylor Fleming (20th century)

    “The purpose of polite behavior is never virtuous. Deceit, surrender, and concealment: these are not virtues. The goal of the mannerly is comfort, per se.”
    —June Jordan (b. 1939)

    “War begets quiet, quiet idleness, idleness disorder, disorder ruin; likewise ruin order, order virtue, virtue glory, and good fortune.”
    —Sir Walter Raleigh (1552–1618)