Rapid eye movement sleep behavior disorder Rapid eye movement sleep behavior disorder Rapid eye movement sleep behavior disorder (RBD) is a sleep disorder (more specifically a parasomnia) in which people act out their dreams. It involves abnormal behavior during the sleep phase with rapid eye movement (REM) sleep. The major feature of RBD is loss of muscle atonia (i.e., the loss of paralysis) during otherwise intact REM sleep (during which paralysis is not only normal but necessary). REM sleep is the stage of sleep in which most vivid dreaming occurs. The loss of motor inhibition leads to a wide spectrum of behavioral release during sleep. This
Rapid eye movement sleep sleepers during a REM phase is a common experimental method for obtaining dream reports; 80% of neurotypical people can give some kind of dream report under these circumstances. Sleepers awakened from REM tend to give longer more narrative descriptions of the dreams they were experiencing, and to estimate the duration of their dreams as longer. Lucid dreams are reported far more often in REM sleep. (In fact these could be considered a hybrid state combining essential elements of REM sleep and waking consciousness.) The mental events which occur during REM most commonly have dream hallmarks including narrative structure, convincingness (experiential