[livingwith]

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....Read the full article

[woobie]

My husband has RBD (REM Beahvior disorder) and has hit me while sleeping. He is a gentle person and has NEVER physically hurt me intentionally. However when he sleeps he becomes "Sleep Disorder Man." We've been dealing with this for about 5 years now. After my husband has hit me, tackled me, kicked the animals off the bed, jumped out of bed to get on his motorcycle, golfed, bowled, fought off the evil of the world, joined the military in Iraq, and several other things over and over, all while dreaming, I stopped sleeping with him. Part of the problem was that when he hit me, before I was even awake I was hitting back! So I told him that he had to see the doctor. Our family doctor gave him Lunesta (sleeping pills) and sent him on his way. That same day I happened to be working in a class in a college (I am a sign language interpreter) and the professor was talking about this rare sleep disorder. She was describing what was happening to my husband. I got home, Googled "REM sleep disorder" and got an article on Web MD. I called our doctor and told him what I had found. He sent Husband to a sleep study with a specialist and they agreed with my diagnosis! So, the point here is...THERE IS HOPE! He's on a medication called CLOMAZAPAM. He started at 1 mg and is now using 2.5 mg. Everytime he starts to move too much for more than a week, he works with his doctor and increases his medication. The good thing about this med is that it is cheap. Less that $25.00 monthly if you have no insurance. There are other meds available and he may need to be changed at some point.

We haven't even delt with the possibility of the neurological problems associated with RBD.

I have suffered from PTSD due to this situation because it went on too long. I was afraid to sleep with him and when I did, it was not restful.

[Kbarnar]

Hi,
My husband has some of the same problems and he is been getting a lot of relief from melatonin and l-theanine.

On one of the posts, a son said his father was treated with klonopin (clonazepam) but that they had to keep increasing his dose till he finally became too groggy. His father is now on melatonin and it's changed his life. Check out the comments made to the postings in March and April 2009 for more details.

Also, there's a book about this sleep disorder (as well as other kinds of sleep problems) written by Dr. Carlos Schenck.

[franikad]

I am Frank.I posted a similar article in March 2009. Your husbands article seems like a mirror image of me. I have been trying to narrow my problem down for years. I think I have more episodes when I go to sleep with problems on my mind. Don't go to bed over tired and especially if you have had a stressful day. I have discovered that anger stays in your body from way back when you were a child. I have a wonderful family now and have a little girl and am happy "now" but I never was able to admit that I was not happy growing up and I think this works on yoru mind. The only way to correct this is to move on. Accept what you have. I was blessed at an older age with a little girl and I think this was Gods way of helping me get through my nightmares.
This might sound stupid but I think acid reflux and this are tied together. Do you want a weird experiment to try? Eat some popcorn before going to sleep expecially if you had a bad day. It has worked so far for me. I told you it will sound weird. What can you lose.
Start turning those lemons into lemonade. The more you worry about having these episodes the more you will have them.
Frank