J Korean Sleep Res Soc.  2014 Jun;11(1):38-43.

Three Cases of Rapid Eye Movement Sleep Behavior Disorder after Encephalitis

• Jin JY
• Kim B
• Lee SA

Abstract

Most secondary form of rapid eye movement (REM) sleep behavior disorder (RBD) is associated with neurodegenerative diseases or narcolepsy. However, RBD may also occur in acute or subacute conditions involving the central nervous system, for example structural lesions, encephalitis, Guillain-Barre syndrome, drug and alcohol withdrawal. Three patients developed RBD after acute inflammatory encephalitis, which lasted for 3 months to 1 year. They talked, moved and walked nightly while asleep. During night polysomnography, there were REM sleep without atonia and abnormally increased REM sleep as 37-87% of total sleep. The RBD improved with clonazepam and there was no recurrence at 1 year follow-up. The global encephalitis could be responsible for the RBD and destruction of sleep architecture.

Keyword

Rapid eye movement sleep behavior disorder; Encephalitis

MeSH Terms

Central Nervous System
Clonazepam
Encephalitis*
Follow-Up Studies
Guillain-Barre Syndrome
Humans
Narcolepsy
Neurodegenerative Diseases
Polysomnography
Recurrence
REM Sleep Behavior Disorder*
Sleep, REM
Clonazepam