Sleepwalk with Me: Comedian's sleep disorder experience comes to film

Mike Birbiglia’s sleep disorder has been the basis for a book and one-man show. Now the comedian’s REM sleep behavior disorder is featured in film. Sleepwalk with Me made its premiere at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah.

The movie is presented in association with WBEZ Public Radio's This American Life. Birbiglia has appeared as a semi-regular contributor to This American Life. Its host, Ira Glass, is a producer for the movie.

Birbiglia plays a New York stand-up comedian with girlfriend issues and a sleep disorder. Birbiglia’s real-life REM sleep behavior disorder causes his body to physically act out dreams. He limits the frequency of these episodes by taking clonazepam, a drug used to treat seizures by activating parts of the brain to produce a calming effect. He also sleeps in a makeshift cocoon – wearing a sleeping bag up to his neck and mittens so he can’t open it and get up.



Sleepwalk with Me also pays homage to sleep medicine. William C. Dement, MD, PhD, can be heard narrating his own audiobook as Birbiglia falls asleep while driving. Dement in 1975 launched the American Sleep Disorders Association, now known as the American Academy of Sleep Medicine. He also served as its president for the first 12 years.

No word if the film has found a distributor. But the book is available for purchase and segments with Birbiglia on NPR are available at This American Life and Fresh Air. More about Mike Birbiglia’s story can be found in the Sleep Education Blog. Or go to the AASM’s patient education website for additional information on parasomnias, like sleepwalking and REM sleep behavior disorder.

Image: Sleepwalk With Me Publicity Photo

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Poor sleep linked to problems in young diabetics

A new study suggests that young diabetics may be struggling to get a good night’s sleep. As a result, they have worse control of their blood sugar, poorer school performance and behavioral problems.

The study tracked the sleep health of 50 Type 1 diabetics, ages 10 to 16. Researchers then compared the data with a similar control group. They found that the young diabetics spent more time sleeping in a lighter sleep than youth without diabetes. This lighter sleep was linked to compromised school performance and higher blood sugar levels.

Research shows that a good night’s sleep helps with glucose maintenance and insulin sensitivity. However, most of this research has been with adults. The new study concluded that sleep assessment should be routine in managing young people’s Type 1 diabetes. The study appears in the January issue of the journal SLEEP.

Read more about children’s sleep needs from the experts. Or find additional stories about children and sleep on the Sleep Education Blog.

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Sleep deprivation prompts quick improvements with chronic insomnia therapy

Sleep deprivation added to traditional therapy resulted in a superior treatment response for chronic insomnia, a new study shows.

Intensive Sleep Retraining (ISR) uses sleep deprivation over a 25-hour period to counteract insomnia. Sleep deprivation facilitates a series of quick sleep onsets, the study’s authors said. ISR has the potential to produce rapid improvements in sleep, daytime functioning and psychological variables.

The study looked at adding ISR to traditional therapy for chronic insomnia sufferers. The results showed rapid improvements in the time it took to fall asleep and in total sleep time. Other significant improvements were noted in sleep quality and daytime functioning. And 61 percent of patients participating in ISR-enhanced therapy reported “good sleeping” status. Researchers said treatment gains were largely maintained throughout the follow-up period to six months.

The study appears in the January issue of the journal SLEEP. Australian researchers treated 79 volunteers with chronic sleep-onset insomnia. The participants were randomly assigned treatments of either ISR, stimulus control therapy (SCT), ISR plus SCT, or a control group receiving sleep hygiene therapy. There were 20 participants in the group receiving ISR plus SCT.

Read more about insomnia and common sleep disorder treatments. Additional stories about insomnia and sleep deprivation can be found in the Sleep Education Blog.

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Short sleep, mental health problems predict long-term insomnia

Mental health problems and getting less than six hours of sleep play key roles in the persistence of insomnia. A study in the January edition of SLEEP found these risk factors in people experiencing insomnia for at least 7½ years. Smoking, caffeine and alcohol consumption, and sleep apnea did not predict persistent insomnia.

The study looked at 1,395 random subjects who reported having insomnia 7½ years earlier. Researchers found that 44 percent of them still had insomnia. Nearly a third (30 percent) were sleeping poorly but 26 percent were sleeping normally again. Those who still had insomnia had strong links to mental health problems and short periods of sleep. Depression was the most common mental health problem reported.

Researchers concluded that addressing mental health issues should be a priority in cases of chronic insomnia. They also suggested that people sleeping less than six hours were strong candidates for chronic insomnia. The study was done by Pennsylvania State University, and the universities of Athens and Crete, both in Greece.

Read more about insomnia due to medical condition, alcohol or drugs or mental disorders.

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Brain changes observed in sleep apnea sufferers

Researchers have observed changes to the brains of severe sleep apnea sufferers. A team in Australia used magnetic resonance (MR) spectroscopy to compare the brain tissue of sleep apnea patients to people without sleep disorders. They identified significant changes in the frontal lobe white matter and in the hippocampus. The changes to the frontal lobe were comparable to traumatic brain injury.

Patients were examined again after six months of continuous positive airway pressure therapy (CPAP). Changes to the hippocampus were no longer significant. CPAP also improved performance on a range of brain function tests. The study appears in the January issue of the journal SLEEP. It is the largest study to-date for looking at brain tissue changes in sleep apnea sufferers.

Sleep apnea occurs when the muscles relax during sleep, causing the soft tissue in the back of the throat to collapse and block the upper airway. The sleep disorder should never go untreated. If you think you may have sleep apnea, get checked out. Countless sleep centers across the U.S. offer overnight sleep studies for the diagnosis of sleep apnea.

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Book Review: The Animals Sleep

The Sleep Education blog invited Beth Smith to review The Animals Sleep: A Bedtime Book of Biomes, a children’s picture book published in 2011 by the American Academy of Sleep Medicine. Now in her sixth year of teaching, Beth teaches first-grade students at St. Paul Catholic School in Valparaiso, Ind. She received a bachelor of science in elementary education from Valparaiso University.

Thomas Heffron has creatively written a story, The Animals Sleep: A Bedtime Book of Biomes, geared toward younger students. Through reading it in a classroom setting, children are able to make cross-curriculum connections in both reading and science.

Students are first introduced to the scientific fact that both humans and animals need sleep. They are then transported from a warm, cozy bedroom into various biomes of multiple animals. The vivid and colorful images created by Lina Safar allow children to visualize the environments in which different animals live.

They will identify familiar animals like a zebra, cow and snake. Connections will be made to which animals live in each biome. Students will also comprehend the physical aspects of each biome.


The pictures match the written, descriptive quality of the book, presenting the children with a great and deeper understanding of the biomes and how each animal sleeps. The rhyme and rhythm presented on each page allow for an exciting and smooth read.

At the conclusion of the book, the children are moved out of the pond, grasslands and desert, and they are placed into their bedroom, a familiar place of sleep. This allows them to comprehend the importance of sleep in their lives just as it is important to the animals.

Children will thoroughly enjoy this story and be drawn into the world of the animals and sleep!

The Animals Sleep: A Bedtime Book of Biomes can be purchased from Amazon or directly from the AASM. Also available from the AASM is I See the Animals Sleeping: A Bedtime Story. Learn more about these books and find other educational resources at SleepEducation.com.

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Calling Dream Enactment Behavior back to bed

REM Sleep Behavior Disorder is characterized by abnormal behaviors that cause injury or disrupt sleep. The most notorious is Dream Enactment Behavior. As the name suggests, Dream Enacted Behavior causes the sleeper to act out his or her dreams. Flailing arms, leaping from bed, crawling or running are often reported.

Researchers from the University of Minnesota tested a customized bed alarm to keep REM Sleep Behavioral Disorder patients from hurting themselves. A pressurized pad and a cord attached to the pajamas sensed when a patient was away from bed. This activated a recording of family members calmly instructing the sleeper to stop. The recording played on a loop until the patient came back to bed.

All four patients participating in the study reported positive results. They had a decrease in REM Sleep Behavioral Disorder symptoms and in sleep-related injuries. Researchers said a customized alarm may be effective preventing REM Sleep Behavioral Disorder injuries. Patients unable to tolerate medical therapy or respond to medical intervention would be the best candidates. The study appeared in the December issue of the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine.

REM Sleep Behavior Disorder is classified as a parasomnia. Read more about REM Sleep Behavioral Disorder on the AASM website or on the Sleep Education Blog.

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