Alan Alda reveals the strange sleep habit that led to his Parkinsons diagnosis it was not that well-known

Alan Alda’s first symptoms of Parkinson’s disease weren’t the typical tremors, stiffness or slow movement.It was throwing a pillow at his wife in his sleep.“I had a symptom, which at the time was not that well-known: Acting out your dreams,” the 90-year-old Emmy winner told CBS Sunday Morning.The “M*A*S*H” star recently revealed his early indicator of the neurodegenerative disease was an uncommon one — REM Sleep Behavior Disorder (RBD).RBD occurs during rapid eye movement (REM) sleep, which is the stage where our most vivid dreams happen.

While the body is typically paralyzed during REM sleep, certain conditions — like Parkinson’s — turn off the switch that controls muscles, resulting in involuntary actions.“I had a dream that somebody was attacking me,” he explained.“And I picked up a sack of potatoes and threw it at ’em.

What I was really doing was throwing a pillow at Arlene, my wife.”Those with RBD can have very active dreams, but because their brain signals don’t block movement during sleeping, they can physically acting out these dreams by punching, kicking or yelling in their sleep.This sleep symptom is often linked to Parkinson’s and other neurological conditions because of the buildup of a protein in the brain known as alpha-synuclein, which damages the area of the brainstem responsible for controlling muscles.While not everyone with RBD is diagnosed with Parkinson’s, this unusual symptom is a risk factor that can occur years before a diagnosis.The “West Wing” alum was first diagnosed back in 2015 and shared last year that he was also experiencing prosopagnosia, or face blindness.

Alda is one of more than 1.1 million people in the US who are affected by Parkinson’s, the risk of which increases with age.There are two types of RBD: symptomatic (secondary), which happens because of an underlying cause, and isolated (idiopathic).Isolated occurs when the condition develops without a cause, and eventually leads to a ...