Early Signs of Lewy Body Dementia

My mom passed six weeks ago from LBD at age 87. I read that one of the early signs of Lewy body dementia is REM disruption/sleep disorder. I remembered a two-week trip I took with my mom nineteen years ago through Yellowstone and Jackson Hole. She was 68 at that time. I recall that she’d start talking in her sleep during the middle of the night. Not just a few words, but 15-minute conversations. She would say something, pause – silence on my end – then respond. She was clearly having a conversation in her mind.  

The first time she started talking while asleep, I lay there with my eyes wide open, listening to her. Sometimes she’d move her arms, too. I never woke her up but questioned her the next day. She didn’t remember any of it. I just assumed she was talking in her sleep. When we arrived back at her house, I asked her boyfriend “How do you sleep with that?” He said he was used to it and we both laughed. He was a retired doctor. Who had heard of LBD 20 years ago?  

Just thought I’d share that the early signs of LBD are strong. After being diagnosed my mom told us she thought she’d had something wrong for about 10 years. Apparently, she lived with LBD for over 20 years.