Dream enactment behavior: review for the clinician

Abstract

Dream enactment behavior commonly occurs on occasion in normal children and adults. Disruptive and frequent dream enactment behavior may come to the attention of the clinician either as the primary reason for consultation or as a prominent characteristic of a patient with other sleep disorders. Questioning patients with chronic neurologic and psychiatric disorders may also reveal previously unrecognized behavior. In the absence of sleep pathology, process of dream enactment likely begins with active, often emotionally charged dream content that may occasionally break through the normal REM sleep motor suppressive activity. Disrupted sleep resulting from many possible causes, such as circadian disruption, sleep apnea, or medications, may also disrupt at least temporarily the motorsuppressive activity in REM sleep, allowing dream enactment to occur. Finally, pathological neurological damage in the context of degenerative, autoimmune, and infectious neurological disorders may lead to chronic recurrent and severe dream enactment behavior. Evaluating the context, frequency, and severity of dream enactment behavior is guided first and foremost by a structured approach to the sleep history. Physical exam and selected testing support the clinical diagnosis. Understanding the context and the likely cause is essential to effective therapy.

Predictors of dream enactment behavior among medical students: The case of the University of Gondar, Ethiopia

“…The difference might be due to sample size, and the population of interest. The prevalence of DEB in our study is lower than studies among other population as observed in postpartum women (63%) and pregnant (40%) women [22] whereas our finding is far higher than studies in the general adult population (5.9% in men, and 4.1% in women), older adults (10.9%) [31]. This difference might be accounted for the varying activities of the population.…”

“…The knowledge of DEB is helpful to design intervention and prevention strategies for neurological disorders [12]. Moreover, it has imminent function to prevent α-synucleinopathy-related motor and cognitive decline [13] and to innovate therapeutic options for clinicians [14]. Evidences showed violent behavior during sleep exist in 1.6% among adults of whom 78.7% reported vivid dreams and 31.4% hurt themselves or someone else [15].…”

Early impact on sleep and mental health during the mandatory social isolation of COVID-19 outbreak: an obser vational cross-sectional study carried out in Argentina

“…In our sample, they could be related to the emotional impact denoted by increased anxiety and depression symptoms during MSI stressful conditions. The necessity of characterizing the phenomenology of dream enacting behaviors had been pointed out by two recent and excellent reviews 64 , 65 , 66 .…”

Lady Macbeth's Night Walking With Dissociative Symptoms Diagnosed by the First Sleep Medicine Record

“…The intrusion of REM sleep in wakefulness may also occur at the post-traumatic stress disorder, and other sleep disorders, that share the possibility of body enact dream content and it underlies oneiric experience that can be expressed by dream enactment behavior. Many recent works shed light on this question (Baltzan et al, 2020;Barone, 2020;Elliott et al, 2020;Rocha and Arnulf, 2020;Siclari et al, 2020).…”