Posted by Lynne on July 14, 2000 at 05:32:10:

In Reply to: Acting out Dreams posted by Dave on July 09, 2000 at 16:02:17:

If you look back through the various postings, I think you'll quickly find that you certainly are not alone with this problem. For serious cases, a couple of drugs seem to be quite effective at controlling the violent activity of this sleep disorder -- something called RBD: REM Behavior Disorder. I, myself, seem to have a rather minor case of this, so that once every few weeks or months I end up kicking my partner or biting his hand if it falls near my mouth during sleep. But we mostly just joke about it and say, "No knives in the bedroom!" And I'm working at rescripting my dreams so that I deal with conflict VERBALLY instead of physically in my dreams, and I'm hoping that will work. Only time will tell, since these dreams are rather infrequent for me.
In your case, however, your dreams appear to be driving you to act out a much more aggressive, threatening level of violence and she is much more at risk of getting physically injured if such episodes recurr. Such episodes are certainly NOT generally any sort of "latent hostility towards the partner" or anything, so don't worry unduly about your relationship with her. However, she is still clearly in potential danger if such episodes return. For her own protection, it might not be a bad idea to sleep apart until you can get to a sleep specialist or, at minimum, to a psychiatrist or doctor who can prescribe that medication for you.
Good luck!

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