“Doctor, my old man has a strange disease. Every day I slept until midnight and began to give a report. The speech was full of words and dancing, and the content of the speech was different every day.” Recently, Uncle Liu was taken to Ningbo City by his wife. Psychosomatic medicine department of a hospital.
Diagnosed by Tong Maoqing, the sleep center of the department, Mr. Liu suffers from “rapid eye movement sleep behavior disorder” (RBD), which also indicates that he may develop Parkinson’s disease and Alzheimer’s in the future. Tong Maoqing said that this disease is most common in the elderly, is quite hidden, and the clinical diagnosis and treatment rate is very low.
Closed his eyes every day to make a long report
Uncle Liu is 68 years old this year. Before retiring, he was the head of a large enterprise in Ningbo. Meetings and presentations are common at work. His level is quite high, and he does not need to prepare a speech in advance for half an hour of speech. He improvises, and Zi Chou Yin Mao speaks clearly.
Last year, Mr. Liu’s wife accidentally discovered that Mr. Liu was giving a report in his sleep. “That posture, just like making a report at a meeting, made it clear. The next day, I told him as a joke, saying that he didn’t do enough reporting when he went to work.”
This was already over. Uncle Liu’s wife slept very well, and he basically slept until dawn, and he didn’t care whether Uncle Liu was still giving reports in his sleep. However, starting before the Spring Festival last year, Uncle Liu’s wife woke up halfway for some reasons. She found a strange thing – her husband gave reports in his sleep every night. Sometimes it takes about 5 minutes, sometimes it takes nearly half an hour. The content of the speech is also closely related to current events, with a cadence and sometimes gestures.
This made her feel a little scared and wondered if her wife had a mental illness.
Someone beat up his wife so that her nose was bruised
In Tong Maoqing’s consultation room, Master Feng’s wife was even more aggrieved – she was often subjected to “domestic violence” in the middle of the night .
Usually, the 72-year-old Master Feng treats his wife very well, and the two talk and laugh. However, in the middle of the night in the second half of last year, Master Feng’s wife was awakened in his sleep: “He punched me in the face and woke me up.”
After Master Feng woke up I recalled that I was probably having a nightmare and accidentally hit my wife. However, such “accidents” are becoming more and more frequent, and sometimes my wife even gets beaten up in her sleep. The next day, Master Feng was “delinquent” again.
My wife suspects: “He either has a strange disease, or he has an opinion on me, and takes advantage of it while he is sleeping.” Because of this, the two often quarreled.
The problem occurs in a stage of sleep
Tong Maoqing said that from the description, the situation of the two elderly people is very typical RBD symptoms, and it is recommended that they Do a sleep polymogram, which is also the gold standard for sleep monitoring.
The two elderly people slept in the hospital and were both confirmed to have RBD.
Tong Maoqing introduced how to perform sleep monitoring.
Tong Maoqing introduced that RBD mainly occurs in the elderly, which is characterized by abnormal behaviors such as punching and kicking, neck pinching, etc. . Some patients appear to be arguing with others and often self-harm, such as hitting a wall or falling under a bed. Such patients often want to sleep very much during the day the next day, and their energy is low.
What is REM sleep? He explained: Normally, adults go through 4-5 sleep cycles after falling asleep at night. Each cycle consists of light sleep period – deep sleep period – rapid eye movement sleep period, the cycle is between 1 and 1.5 hours.
Under normal circumstances, during REM sleep, a person’s body is very relaxed, almost completely unable to move, so he can’t speak or move. In RBD patients, on the contrary, muscle tone is particularly high during this period and is quite hyperactive. Therefore, dreams can be truly interpreted through words. For example, giving a report, hitting someone, struggling, getting out of bed, etc.
Tong Maoqing has only encountered one relatively young RBD patient after working in the diagnosis and treatment of sleep disorders for many years. This is a policeman in his 50s. Once he fell asleep in the middle of the night and rushed out of bed. He punched and kicked against the wall, breaking several ribs. When asked what happened to him later, he said he dreamed that he was catching a thief. After examination, the diagnosis was RBD.
This disease is mostly related to nervous system diseases
Tong Maoqing introduced that RBD patients often have degenerative diseases of the nervous system, and some of them have unknown etiologies. Studies have found that RBD is an early manifestation of Parkinson’s disease and Alzheimer’s disease.
“A clear diagnosis as soon as possible will make life easier, and secondly, some interventions can be made early.” Tong Maoqing said that for the treatment of RBD, on the one hand, drugs can be used to regulate the rapid eye movement sleep phase. Reduce muscle tension and relieve symptoms; on the other hand, it is more necessary to treat related primary diseases and control basic diseases such as diabetes and hypertension.
For some RBD patients, environmental protection measures can be strengthened. For example, sleeping in separate beds with spouses, removing potentially dangerous items in the bedroom, and installing bedside guardrails, etc., can reduce self-harm and hurt others.
Source: Ningbo Evening News