For Mike Birbligia, sharing events in his sleepwalking experience which are obviously factual for some, may be a good way to get people up and about on why sleepwalking could be fatal in some instances. Some would call this show, a hilarious 80-minute off-Broadway monologue that weaves his sleepwalking yarns into more profound narratives about his fears of intimacy and adulthood, Sleepwalk With Me, as a attention-seeking plot. However, if you pay attention more closely, they do and can happen.
Among Birbiglia’s biggest fans: a handful of sleep researchers who have praised him for drawing attention to a condition they say is more common, and potentially more dangerous, than most people care to acknowledge.
Normally, as the brain enters REM sleep, or dream sleep, the body’s muscles become paralyzed, except for the diaphragm, which is essential to breathing. That prevents us from acting on our thoughts, essentially protecting us from our own minds while we dream. But in people with RMBD, the muscles never enter dream paralysis and the body remains fully capable of action—an easy recipe for injury or death, given that sleeping people usually feel no pain.
(Source) NewsWeek
