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Main Category: Sleep / Sleep Disorders / Insomnia
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Article Date: 29 Jun 2012 - 9:00 PDT
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Potentially Violent Sleep Disorder Linked To Smoking, Pesticides And Head Injury
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REM behavior disorder, during which the sleeper does not have the typical lack of muscle tone during the REM (rapid eye movement) phase of sleep, and can act out dreams, sometimes violently, may be linked to smoking, head injuries or pesticides, researchers reported in the Journal Neurology. Some people with this sleeping disorder may kick out or punch while asleep, sometimes injuring their bed partner or themselves.
The authors say that approximately 0.5% of all adults are affected by REM behavior disorder.
Ronald B. Postuma, MD, MSc, from the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre (MUHC), Montreal, Canada, said:
"Until now, we didn't know much about the risk factors for this disorder, except that it was more common in men and in older people. Because it is a rare disorder, it was difficult to gather information about enough patients for a full study. For this study, we worked with 13 institutions in 10 countries to get a full picture of the disorder."
In some cases, REM behavior disorder may be a precursor for Parkinson's disease, as well as other neurodegenerative illnesses. According to some studies, approximately half of all people with this disorder eventually develop some kind of neurodegenerative disease years later, even decades later.
Postuma said "Due to this connection, we wanted to investigate whether the risk factors for REM behavior disorder were similar to those for Parkinson's disease or dementia."
The authors explained that smoking has two conflicting consequences - it protects from developing Parkinson's disease, but also increases the risk of developing REM behavior disorder, which in turn is linked to a higher chance of developing Parkinson's later one.
Pesticide usage is a risk factor for both Parkinson's disease and the sleeping disorder. Coffee appears to reduce Parkinson's risk; no relationship was found between coffee drinking and REM behavior disorder risk.
Postuma and team recruited 347 volunteers who had the REM behavior disorder, and another 347 who did not. Of the 347 in the second group, 218 had some other kind of sleeping disorder, and 129 had no sleeping disorders at all.
The researchers found that those with REM sleep behavior disorder were much more likely to:
- Be smokers (43%)
- To have had a previous head injury where they lost consciousness (56%)
- To have worked as a farmer (67%)
- To have been exposed to pesticides through work (twice as likely)
- Have had 11.1 years of education, compared to 12.7 years among those without the disorder
"Smoking, head injury, pesticide exposure, and farming are potential risk factors for idiopathic REM sleep behavior disorder."
What is REM behavior disorder?
People with RBD (REM behavior disorder) act out their dreams, some may shout, scream, punch, or get up and run around while sleeping. There is a risk they might injure themselves or whoever is sleeping next to them. Some patients have been known to get up and walk around and do things people generally do while awake.
Sleep involves transitions between three different states: wakefulness, REM (rapid eye movement) sleep and N-REM (non rapid eye movement) sleep. During REM we dream.
RBD occurs during the REM sleep stage.
Most people during this stage have muscle atonia (paralysis) - during REM, they are, in fact, paralyzed. They have their dream but their body does not move. For those with RBD, there is loss of muscle atonia. So, during vivid dreams, they may start talking, jerking, twitching, punching or kicking. Some people get out of bed and start walking around.
Despite movements and vocal utterances during dreams, the RBD person is only aware of the dream, and is in fact fast asleep.
Written by Christian Nordqvist
Copyright: Medical News Today
Not to be reproduced without permission of Medical News Today
MLA
Christian Nordqvist. "Potentially Violent Sleep Disorder Linked To Smoking, Pesticides And Head Injury." Medical News Today. MediLexicon, Intl., 29 Jun. 2012. Web.
29 Jun. 2012. <http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/247270.php>
APA
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/247270.php.
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