By Sheryl Ubelacker, THE CANADIAN PRESS June 28, 2012
TORONTO -- Smoking and pesticide exposure appear to be strong risk factors for a rare disorder that causes people to physically act out their dreams while asleep, even to the extent of punching and kicking their bedmates, research suggests.
Individuals with
REM sleep behaviour disorder (RBD) do not exhibit the lack of muscle tone -- called atonia -- that usually occurs during sleep, leaving them able to move freely.
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The study, published in this week?s issue of the journal Neurology, also found subjects with RBD were 59 per cent more likely to have had a previous head injury with loss of consciousness. Two-thirds were more likely to have worked as farmers, and were more than twice as likely to have been exposed to pesticides.
?That was the strongest one, in fact. Pesticides are very clearly associated with REM sleep disorder behaviours,? Postuma said.
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