So we went to bed last night wondering what my RBD might have in store for us. For the uninitiated, RBD stands for Rem sleep Behavior Disorder. When people who don’t have RBD are sleeping, their muscles are in a state of atonia meaning their muscles are completely relaxed or paralyzed to keep them from acting out their dreams. Sounds like a good idea, right?
People with RBD don’t have this safety feature turning off the muscles, so we do act out dreams, most typically violent or active ones. RBD often shows up years before a Parkinson’s Disease diagnosis, along with anosmia (loss of the sense of smell) and can be an early warning of the fun to come.
Climbing out of the rabbit hole and back to the story: It was a dark and stormy night (no really, it was) and about 3 or 4 am I heard water running and thought our dog Gauge might have had an accident so I got up to investigate. Now remember it was a dark and stormy night, so totally dark. I started shuffling along the bedroom wall like a ninety-year old to get into the bathroom doorway, but in my halfway REM, half awake state I got lost. You have to know that my wife Teri has never met a virgin section of wall that she didn’t have a Pavlovian response to decorate, so you have to be really careful trying to figure where you are to avoid massive destruction of artwork, etc.
Another PD issue raised its ugly head at this point. The only light in the room was the alarm clock on Teri’s side of the bed, which should have been a helpful way point for most people, but PD tends to completely hose spacial awareness so that even looking at the clock was useless for me because I couldn’t figure it out. Of course, this whole time I was walking into things like shoes, the dog and a footlocker.
Eventually I found my way out of our room and also realized that (remember the “dark and stormy night”)? I was hearing water in the gutters, not the dog peeing. The sound of the running water told me I might as well pee while I was up so I waved my arms around until the Nest thermostat lit up and I could find the guest bathroom.
When I got back to bed, Teri asked me what I was doing and I said “I got lost”. Laughter ensued while she imitated what she heard. Clunk “shit!”, clunk “shit”, clunk “yelp!” Can’t wait for tonight.
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bbc680
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Perhaps a small LED flashlight might be in order. The batteries last a long time in the small LED flashlights and it fits neatly on the nightstand or under the pillow.
If you haven't already tried it, some people with RBD respond well to low dose melatonin and melatonin has shown benefit for people with PD also.
Here are a couple of links showing how melatonin can benefit RBD and is potentially a frontline treatment :
Thanks, Art. I do have PD and have tried Melatonin, as well as Melatonin gummies with cbd and thc. I'll check out your links. I'm mainly writing these stories to bring some understanding of the disease to my friends and general public. My wife put a light on my nightstand tonight
Thanks, PB. I do have a motion sensor nightlight in the bathroom which is only about five feet from our bed. It was an unusually dark night (we're out in the country) and I was really sleepy. Now have a small flashlight on my nightstand. I mainly wrote it hoping to brighten someone's day.
You did brighten my day! Love it. My husband has PD and all this sounds very familiar 😊 I will read him your story later and I know it will give him a good chuckle
Reality check , broken hip leading to wheelchair, broken skull ,brain bleeding, coma.
install handrails and hand holds , and automatic lighting, get rid of loose floor mats, maybe later get a plastic urinal.
unattentive moment and you suddenly find yourself already on the floor, in a lot of pain. You did not even know you were falling and your life has instantly changed .
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Doing it while you can 
L-Tryptophan supplements to aid sleep issues
Just discovered a medical clinic that uses PMB/ Vielight
Apollo neuro trial. It has arrived!
