Sleep Med Psychophysiol.  1994 Jun;1(1):99-106.

A Case of REM Sleep Behavior Disorder Confirmed with Polysomnography

• Jeong DU
• Yoon IY

Abstract

The authors report a case of REM sleep behavior disorder which occurred in a 69-year-old business man. He began experiencing episodic "acting out" behavior of his dream at the age of 66. The episodes tended to be associated with dream contents, mainly being chased or threatened. Before that, his sleep was relatively quiet despite occasional nightmares, midsleep arousal, and shallowness. Injuries resulted from leaping out of bed, jumping onto furnitures, and grabbing and biting the spouse's arm. Most recent dream-incurred laceration of chin required 5 sutures. Medical and psychiatric history revealed no sgnificant findings except that he had been overanxious all his life within himself with others' reputation of himself as pleasant and easy-going. A nocturnal polysomnogram showed repeatedly intermittent increase of chin and/or leg muscle tones during otherwise characteristic REM sleep period. The overnight video recording revealed head lifting and limb movements during REM sleep periods. Brain MRI and EEG were normal. Job-related stress was presumed to be an etiological possibility. Clonazepam 0.25-0.5mg nightly almost completely relieved the symptoms.

Keyword

REM sleep; REM sleep behavior disorder; Polysomnography; Clonazepam

MeSH Terms

Aged
Arm
Arousal
Brain
Chin
Clonazepam
Commerce
Dreams
Electroencephalography
Extremities
Head
Humans
Lacerations
Leg
Lifting
Magnetic Resonance Imaging
Polysomnography*
REM Sleep Behavior Disorder*
Sleep, REM*
Sutures
Video Recording
Clonazepam