(Ivanhoe Newswire) -- An unusual sleep disorder could be a precursor
to dementia or Parkinson’s disease.
Patients with REM sleep behavior disorder have excessive muscle activity
during REM sleep -- often called the dream stage of sleep -- causing them to
punch, kick or cry out when they are in a deep sleep.
Of the 93 REM sleep behavior patients involved in the study, 26 developed a
neurodegenerative disease within five years. Doctors estimate the 10-year
disease development risk to be 41 percent and the 12-year risk to be 52
percent.
"The results may help us better understand how these neurodegenerative
diseases develop," study author Ronald B. Postuma, M.D., a sleep specialist
from McGill University in Montreal, Canada, was quoted as saying. "They also
suggest that there may be an opportunity for protecting against the
progression to disease, perhaps even preventing it before the symptoms can
appear."
The patients involved in this study had no known cause of REM sleep behavior
disorder. In some cases, the condition can be caused by narcolepsy or rare
brainstem abnormalities.
SOURCE: Neurology, published online Dec. 24, 2008
