Living with REM Behavior Disorder

Ever since my wife and I met she has told me of frequent occurences of ‘unusual and frightening’ behaviour during my sleep. At first, I honestly thought that maybe she had dreamed these things herself, but this was not the case!

Up until recently I thought I had gone mad! My brother and sister have always heard me talking in my sleep as a child (sometimes even in French!) and occasionally I have sleep-walked. Over the past few years, things have become much worse!

My wife has reported that on several occasions, she has woke up terrified because I have sat up in bed and have stared at her with a blank, evil look, and then I have punched or attacked her. On another occasion, she has woke up to find me trying to suffocate her by covering her nose and mouth! When she strikes me to defend herself, I just turn around and fall asleep again, with NO RECOLLECTION WHATSOEVER!!!

Fortunately, this does not occur very often, but I am known to masturbate in my sleep quite often calling out names of various women I may have encountered during the day. This is also bizarre as I don’t think of these women in a sexual way when I do encounter them!!! As you can imagine, this is extremely upsetting for my wonderfully patient (and understanding) wife!

As a result of one of my recent ‘nocturnal antics’, my wife decided to investigate this further and we have come to realise that I could very well have REM behaviour disorder. This is interesting as when I was a child, I suffered symptoms of narcolepsy and would often fall asleep during a conversation with friends or family (much to their amusment!). Obviously, it is far from funny and can be quite distressing and embarrassing!

Now that we have some understanding of my disorder, it is a step forward into improving our quality of life. Thank you to my wife for being so wonderful in all of this and sorry for the heartache and distress!!!