Alan Alda says the first sign of his Parkinson’s showed up not in a shaky hand, but in the middle of the night. The 90-year-old actor told CBS Sunday Morning that years ago he began “acting out” his dreams, once hurling a pillow at his sleeping wife while dreaming he was throwing a sack of potatoes at an attacker, per the New York Post. Doctors later linked the episodes to REM sleep behavior disorder (RBD), in which the usual muscle “off switch” during dream sleep malfunctions, allowing people to kick, punch, or shout while still asleep.
RBD is uncommon but strongly associated with Parkinson’s and other neurological conditions driven by abnormal protein buildup in the brain. Alda, diagnosed with Parkinson’s in 2015 and more recently open about having face blindness, is among more than 1.1 million Americans living with the disease. RBD affects an estimated 2% of people over 50, though experts believe it’s underdiagnosed. Studies suggest most people with isolated RBD eventually develop a brain disorder such as Parkinson’s.
Evaluation typically involves a detailed sleep history and an overnight study, while treatment focuses on safety measures around the bed and off-label use of drugs like melatonin or clonazepam to dial down the nighttime turmoil. On CBS, Alda also talked about his M-A-S-H character, Hawkeye Pierce, and the “connection” the actors on set had, per People. “We didn’t go back to our dressing rooms between shots,” he said. “We stayed in our chairs in a circle and made fun of one another and laughed.” More from Alda here.