Living with REM Behavior Disorder

My husband has been suffering with nocturnal disturbances for the last 5 years. We did not understand fully what was causing it. So off to the doctor we went. We were told it was caused from stress and given some sedatives for sleep.When we told them we did not have any stress as we were happily retired living the good life with no worries, we were told that sometimes retirement can cause stress ???

We were given drugs to sleep. The first night on those drugs told us that was not the answer. I then asked to see a neurologist to rule out any problems in the brain. There was no problem with the brain and he was diagnosed with nocturnal hallucinations and offered more drugs. At the same time my husband was diagnosed with Arthritis through out his body and put on some drugs for the arthritis which caused a GI bleed. and had to be transfused with 4 units of blood. We decided from there we were going off all those drugs and he is now taking only Tylenol for pain. We wondered if drugs were the cause of the dreams The only other medication that he took was for high blood pressure With the assistance of our doctor we monitored his blood pressure and took him off that medication to see if it made any difference—no it did not.

My husbands symptoms were becoming violent kicking, hitting the bed with his fists, diving out of bed injuring his face nose and head, at one time put his head through the door as he was tackling a person in his dream. The violence seemed to subside and he began yelling at night, profanity that he never used in normal life, lashing as well as dreams that seem to return night after night. This is where we are at the moment. When a dream happens and I can always tell I gently stroke him on the face and call his name to wake him , however there are some nights it is very difficult to wake him and he will answer me but still return to the same dream. I would love to hear if any one has heard of any non medication solutions. I have read some articles that relate chronic pain with RBM.