Suffocated by a demon sitting on your chest ...
trodes on his scalp, we recorded his brain waves as he slept and used video and motion sensors to record his eye and limb movements.
The data showed he was quite clearly kicking an imaginary ball while he was in the dreaming stage of sleep, known as rapid eye movement or REM sleep. This rare disorder occurs because the normal mechanisms that paralyse the limbs during REM sleep – to make sure we don’t act our dreams – don’t function properly.
While it can occur at any age, it is more likely to affect men over 50. Sometimes, REM sleep behaviour disorder is an early warning sign of other neurological disorders such as Parkinson’s disease, which starts with the degeneration of brain stem tissue. Thankfully, in this case, tests came back negative.
We prescribed clonazepam and it worked. The patient still dreams he’s a Premier League football star, but his wife no longer needs to show him the red card.
TERROR DROVE MAN TO JUMP OUT OF WINDOW
EVERYONE suffers frightening dreams or nightmares.
Dreams are thought to be the mind’s way of processing data and deciding what gets stored as long- term memory and what gets junked.
A nightmare is simply a scary version of a dream that may even wake us up with a jolt. But night terrors, in which sufferers thrash about violently are far more serious than simply a bad dream.
In fact, those who have night terrors often have no memory of what made them behave so worryingly.
One patient, a man in his 30s, had such dramatic night terrors that neighbours were threatening to call the police.
Almost every night, he would scream in bed, terrified, before running to the window and attempting to climb out of it. The next morning, he couldn’t remember a thing. Here, the conscious part of the brain is asleep, but the part that registers fear temporarily wakes up. Studies have shown they don’t occur when someone is in the dreaming phase of sleep.
There isn’t a cure, but the condition can be linked to stress and exhaustion. This patient often stayed up late and worked long hours. We gave him a sedative to help him sleep more deeply, which seemed to work.
HAUNTED BY A SPOOKY, GHOST- LIKE SEX PEST
STORIES of male demons preying on women while they sleep appear in folklore in every corner of the globe: from the German goblin who sits of the chest of sleepers, to the Chilean dwarf, who lulls nubile young women and seduces them.
But these bizarre stories may have a medical explanation in common: those reporting these phenomena were, in fact, suffering from sleep paralysis.
We see it fairly commonly: up to eight per cent of adults wake up to find they cannot move or speak for up to a few minutes.
Sleep paralysis happens when the brain wakes up before the natural muscle paralysis of dream sleep wears off.
One patient, a young man, was convinced that he was being sexually assaulted by a ghost-like figure that was sitting on his chest and suffocating him, and he was unable to move.
We don’t have any medical solution and just reassure people that sleep paralysis is common.
Sometimes, when you wake in a state of ‘paralysis’ concentrating on making small rather than large movements can help.
Sleep paralysis often occurs when someone is over-tired, so plenty of rest is crucial.
BIZARRE CASES OF THE MIDNIGHT MUNCHIES
EATING while fast asleep isn’t common, affecting fewer than one per cent of adults. The person eating doesn’t feel hungry, they are merely rehearsing a familiar act.
They usually eat readily prepared comfort food but we have come across people who cook meals in their sleep. The next day, when they wake up, they can be horrified at what they have concocted from a range of bizarre ingredients and their kitchen is often in a topsyturvy state.
While it doesn’t usually cause much trouble, for some it can be damaging.
One woman attended our clinic after having drunk bleach during an episode. She’d woken up in her kitchen, her throat burning, completely unaware of what she had done.
Overnight, we recorded her brain waves with electrodes placed on her skull as well as videoing the room. Just after midnight she sat up in bed and walked over to her bag, taking out snacks that she had brought with her.
Our monitors showed that parts of her brain were asleep, but other parts showed patterns seen during wakefulness. We managed to control her condition with medications including clonazepam or the antiepileptic drug topiramate, which helps to reduce appetite.
Matthew Walker is Professor of Neurology at University College London Queen Square Institute of Neurology. Dr Sofia Eriksson is a consultant neurologist and leads sleep services at University College Hospital London. Between them, they have diagnosed and treated thousands of sleep disorders. They were talking to Thea Jourdan.