In his book Paradox Lost, Midnight in the Battleground of Sleep and Dreams, Dr. Carlos Schenck has this to say in his introduction to the chapter on REM Sleep Behavior Disorder: "What emerges with special clarity is the true love, keen altertness, and heroic endurance on the part of the devoted wives. RBD men are fortunate in marriage."

If your LO has (or had) RBD, take a gold star out of petty cash, please.

The way I dealt with it was to turn my back to him. He didn't do any harm with a punch done while asleep, horizontal, and with no target. It never hurt; I just didn't want to get hit in the face or boobs.

He now sleeps lying flat on his back without moving or making any noise. Do any others do that?

G

Yes, Gail. So does my husband.

That's the way I slept, Gail, with my back to him. I also didn't want a hit in the face. And now he does sleep mostly on his back at the beginning of the night. Later on he curls up on his side, but for the first few hours it is on his back with little movement except for the nights when his hallucinations are really doing a number on him. Now I am in a different bedroom and I actually can sleep on either side....WOW...a choice.

Smiles, Nan

Frank sleeps on his back and never moves all night. He does talk, hum, sing or coughs all night. I sleep in another room, can still hear him but his shaking no longer wakes me.

Leone - you beat me to the suggestion of a Tempurpedic! Being a light sleeper used to mean almost every time my husband moved I'd wake up. With the Tempurpedic we bought last spring sleeping in the same bed is the usual, not the exception! Lynn

It's interesting to see how many of the LOs have gone from the dangerous, active sleep behaviors to the quiet still sleeping. That's the case with my LO. After sleeping "on pins and needles" for years after a punch in the stomach and then a black eye, we now sleep peacefully and quietly. Similar to Gerry's LO, my hubby does occasionally sing and laugh in his sleep.

Marcia 58, husband 76. Diagnosed with LBD in 2008. Sleep disorders evident since 1990.

Marcia, did your husband receive treatment for RBD?

Can someone tell me how a Temperpedic bed is put together and how it works to keep you from feeling the movements of dreams being acted out? It sounds too good to be true, and I am very, very interested!

John not only talks and laughs but jerks and moves his arms and legs. It is happening less frequently now with extended release melatonin helping him in addition to some weigh loss, which has helped the sleep apnea.

Years ago I traded our king size bed for two twin sets placed directly on the floor to completely stabilize the beds separately, while keeping us close together. It also put us lower so if John falls off, he is closer to the floor. I recently added white noise to block out some of the sounds of his active night life. When all else fails, we sleep in different rooms that night.

For us, the key to me getting better sleep is not only the Tempurpedic mattress, but NO BOX SPRINGS either. Having a platform instead of box springs, and a mattress that is just memory foam, I don't have to keep getting up and moving to another room when my husband's twitching legs wake me up.
I don't care how good other typical mattresses with springs inside say they are, just going to a bed store and trying all of the different types showed us that the Tempurpedic was the only one where I felt almost no movement.
The only time I feel movement is if his legs are really jerking convulsively and I feel the blankets move on my legs (I'm a really light sleeper).
Tempurpedics are not cheap and they don't seem to ever go on sale, but my not getting a good night's sleep was not good and well worth the price of the mattress and platform. Lynn

I just hope there's no urinary incontinence on the horizon. Group members who have the Tempur-pedic mattresses that circulate in our group pay big $ to an upholstery cleaner to get the urine out of the mattress.

You've got that right, Robin. My daughter and her husband paid $3K for one and their puppy peed on it, ruining it.

Hi Jeanne and all,

Sorry..haven't been on the board for a bit. My husband has had success with his namenda and zoloft, until he began to get up many times a night. It came to the point where he might sleep for about five minutes or ten, and then be up again, just roaming, touching things, picking imaginary bugs up from the carpet, and falling occasionally. I was also suffering from sleep deprivation, feeling terrible. When I contacted the Adler Institution, a part of Yale New Haven Hospital, the doctor prescribed gabapentin. This combination, for him, was a miracle. Those are the only medications that he takes, besides the Exelon Patch, for his condtion....nothing specifically for Parkinson's, since every medication he took for Parkinson's had a negative affect. He sleeps through the night most of the time. Now he has become incontinent, so the hospital bed, and his sleeping alone has become necessary. I have a double bed in our bedroom, so I am close by if he needs me. The floor alarm mat which is right next to him goes off at the slightest touch, so I am awakened to his need. He is now confined to a wheelchair, and in severe dementia so the realization of his condition is not there very often, but when he asks what is happening to him I tell him that his Parkinson's has become somewhat worse, as has his memory. I comfort him and tell him that he can be comfortable; all is well, and that he is doing fine. He seems content with that.It is a heartbreaking thing for all of us.....We all do what we can, and do things we never thought we could, or would be called on to do...I hope I haven't run on too much...I sort of forgot the question, but trust I answered SOMETHING BTW: he does act out dreams actively, still.

Marcia