REM Sleep Behavior Disorder and chronic pain patients?

[mmglobal]

I'm just lucky I guess....

There is a nucleus of the brain that is responsible for paralyzing you when you are dreaming. REM Sleep Behavior Disorder or RBD is when that mechanism fails. Physically acting out your dreams is not a good thing.

My PM referred me to an internist to deal with my sleep issue. The internist very quickly said, "there is a diagnosis for what you are describing.... RBD."

The prognosis is, "sucks to be you." Sleep downstairs, don't keep sharp objects next to the bed...

I'd say that my experience is in 1/3's. 1/3 of the mornings, I wake up and don't have any awareness of the problem. 1/3 of the time, I know I'm more than restless and Diane complains that I flailed all night. 1/3 of the time, I wake up and know that I duked it out with my nightstand... phones, ipods, etc... all knocked all over the place...

Discussions of RBD often include medications that may cause or exacerbate it. This has been going on for more than a year. None of my med changes are implicated. All of the meds that may be implicated pre-date the problem and I've not had any difficulties with them.

Anyone have experience with this?

All the best,

Mark