VIOLENT SLEEP-RELATED BEHAVIOR LEADING TO SUBDURAL HEMORRHAGE

Objective: To polysomnographically determine, using split-screen elect roencephalographic-video analysis, the cause of violent sleep-related activity in a patient whose differential diagnosis includes sleep walk ing (somnambulism), paver incubus (adult night terrors), nocturnal sei zures, psychogenic wandering, and rapid eye movement sleep behavior di sorder. Setting: The patient was referred to the University of Iowa, D epartment of Neurology Sleep Disorders Center, Iowa City, from the loc al community to evaluate a history of violent dreams associated with i njury. The subject presented with a subdural hemorrhage that was disco vered with magnetic resonance imaging, Outcome: The diagnosis of rapid eye movement sleep behavior disorder was confirmed after a characteri stic spell of violent behavior, with an associated dream, was captured polysomnographically.