People who regularly act out their dreams at night have a disorder called REM sleep behavioral disorder (RBD). Frequently, these patients can injure themselves or their spouses and not even realize it.

During normal REM sleep, the part of the brain that activates movement of the arms and legs is gated closed and silenced, so that your limbs are paralyzed. When this mechanism fails, RBD ensues.

A recent study done by the Mayo clinic indicates that a startlingly large number of people with RBD (two-thirds!) will, within 11 years time, go on to develop a synucleinopathy: a neurodegenerative disease like Parkinson’s disease or Lewy Body dementia.

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