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CupcakeAssassin t1_j7gzuey wrote

Sooo, I am but a simple man. If someone much smarter than me can explain this in layman terms, it would be much appreciated. Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s has run in a few members of my extended family, info on it would be helpful.

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SimilarLee OP t1_j7h34g9 wrote

Edit: if you read the headline and you're like "oh, ffffuuuu", please read /u/onewobblywheel 's insightful comment about how some combination of diet, habit, or environment could move the needle for you to at least postpone and potentially halt disease progression. Whether or not that person's strategies apply to you, is immaterial. The point is is that not every future is chiseled in stone, and if this applies to you, early stage therapies and modifications may be worth pursuing.

It means if you act out your dreams, meaning if you physically move around as if your dream were real life: you should probably talk to a specialist about mitigating the high likelihood of future diseases related to specific brain pathologies.

Edit. All of these disorders are synucleinopathies, either caused by or related to the over accumulation of the alpha-synuclein protein in neuronal synapses. One early presentation of this diverse group of brain-based Illnesses is REM Brain Disorder, in which the patient is able to break through the typical paralysis that the dreaming body experiences. This allows the non paralyzed sleeper to act out their dreams physically, and often violently.

Retrospective analysis has discovered that at least four-in-five, and potentially up to 98%, of people who experience physical dreaming eventually develop parkinson's, als, lewy body dementia, or other brain based illness.

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CupcakeAssassin t1_j7h49fe wrote

Oh like sleep walking or kicking around a bunch while in bed/moving arms? If that is the case I am in the clear for now.

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SimilarLee OP t1_j7h4ri5 wrote

Correct. This risk factor relates to physically acting out your dreams.

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pf30146788e t1_j7hqg1l wrote

Oh I thought they meant like after you woke up, if you had like a play you put on to act out what happened in your dreams

I’m an idiot

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the-magnificunt t1_j7hvj5w wrote

What if you do but only once in a blue moon? I punched my partner in the back in the middle of the night once while Dream Me was fighting a giant bee, but I don't generally do things like that.

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Oddity_Odyssey t1_j7iyo3t wrote

I peed in a trash can when I was 6

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the-magnificunt t1_j7jaaob wrote

I don't think I needed this information but...thanks for sharing?

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trevor11004 t1_j7jucuc wrote

I imagine acting out dreams is much more common in childhood than the rest of a persons life, typically. From my understanding dreams are typically much more vivid in general as a child.

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CupcakeAssassin t1_j7ickho wrote

Replying to the edit! That is super interesting. Is that why sleep walkers get violent when someone attempts to wake them up? I don’t know if it is a myth, but I have always seen in a bunch of places that you are not supposed to wake someone up who is sleep walking. In this instance too, someone acting out their dreams while still in bed.

Side note, I have always heard stories of elderly people or people near death talking and or moving in their sleep a lot. This seems interestingly related. I guess since a small factor of Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s exists in my family tree, I know an early symptom I should look out for.

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bigstressy t1_j7haybo wrote

What would mitigating these things entail? Aren't they incurable?

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SimilarLee OP t1_j7hv1ke wrote

I'm not an expert on the etiology nor the mitigation, nor really any part of these diseases. I simply heard that statistic recently, did some research to validate what I had heard, and then posted because I found it so wild that these sleep behavioral symptoms were indicative of future pathologies.

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Mollybrinks t1_j7jfjor wrote

Well, I'm well and truly fucked. I've had everything from sleep walking to lucid dreaming to literally "seeing" my dreamscape even after kinda waking up, overlaid over the real room I was sleeping in. I had to dodge through a bunch of trees one time to get to the light switch so I could stop the dreamscape. And grandpa just died of lewy body dementia. Good times.

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onewobblywheel t1_j7jz8d1 wrote

I just added a long post to this thread that might interest you. It starts with "I am reluctant".

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bombayblue t1_j7jeywb wrote

What’s the frequency for this to be an issue? I’ve woken up three times in the past decade or so swinging or yelling at something from a dream.

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Swizzy88 t1_j7jw5uh wrote

I did this as a kid quite often, bashed my hand into the wall next to my bed a few times, kick the wall or fall out of bed. Seems to have stopped over 10 years ago. My grandfather had ALS but haven't heard of anyone else having Alzheimer's or Parkinson's. I'm mid 30s, I feel like a weirdo going to the doctor asking to be checked out for Parkinson's/Alzheimer's etc.

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Robititties t1_j7h45pp wrote

I copy/pasted the "Results" section of the study and asked ChatGPT to explain like I'm 5:

>A group of doctors did a study to see what might cause Parkinson's disease in people who have a sleep problem called REM sleep behavior disorder. They followed 89 people with the sleep problem for 10 years to see what happened to them. They also checked different things about their health, like their sense of smell, how well they see colors, and if they had any trouble moving.

>After 10 years, they found that about 66% of the people with the sleep problem had developed Parkinson's disease or another similar problem. They also found that some things, like getting older, having a poor sense of smell, and not being able to see colors well, made it more likely for people to develop Parkinson's.

Both Parkinson's and Alzheimer's have different but noteworthy genetic components, so it's worth researching either way

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areolegrande t1_j7jqwto wrote

How the fuck do you avoid getting older like cman give me something :/

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Robititties t1_j7jsrfi wrote

Get in touch with your inner child. Honor that child's emotions, realize you're the same person. Show that child compassion, do things it enjoys, realize you deserve that happiness and the freedom to do so. Pretty good for the blood pressure and mental health, because repressing trauma makes it worse

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RalphWaldoEmers0n t1_j7ka138 wrote

My dad dreampt of fighting in his dreams and would punch in his sleep - we would joke for years about it and then he got Parkinson’s

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onewobblywheel t1_j7jz4on wrote

I just added a long post to this thread that might interest you. It starts with "I am reluctant".

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