Professor Thomas Pentsil stated that Rapid Eye Movement Sleep Behavior Disorder is a sleep disorder characterized, as its name suggests, by rapid eye movements due to a dream, causing the individual to physically enact the dream. Depending on the nature of the dream, individuals may engage in kicking, punching, screaming, or jumping out of bed, which can result in injury to themselves or others.
Pentsil, director of the Multidisciplinary Sleep Medicine Center at Charité Hospital in Berlin, Germany, noted that some causes of this disorder include side effects from certain medications or neurodegenerative diseases, such as Parkinson's or multisystem atrophy.
He pointed out that treatment is possible with medications taken before bedtime to inhibit muscle activity. In some cases, cognitive behavioral therapy may also be used, along with relaxation techniques such as meditation and autogenic training, which aid in muscle and nerve relaxation.
