Hi.
I feel your anxiety over the PSG study. Glad it didn't turn up any of the real nasties. Did they say what the breathing disorder was, obstructive apnea, central apnea etc.
Resolution of muscle cramps and fasciculations with treatment of sleep apnea.
Reddy PL, Grewal RP.
J Clin Neuromuscul Dis. 2009 Sep;11(1):66-7. doi: 10.1097/CND.0b013e3181aede82
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19730026 I was different however because I did have a nasty turn up on my PSG study. I had an isolated recording of " REM without Atonia". They stressed it was NOT REM sleep disorder. They feel mine is associated with some sort of narcolepsy, as it was on a background of severely disorganised sleep archetecture, with numerous arousals, my sleep was so fragmented but no explanation why as my breathing was fine.
Never the less I was worried about a possible association between the " loss of atonia" observation with all the nasty synucleinopathies. I know there is less evidence for such an association and it is usually only full blown REM sleep disorder ( of which atonia loss is just only one component). You are right in your post that the full disorder is linked to MSA, LBD, parkinsons etc.
Like you I am also in the UK, but because of my worry with noone to address it, I got specialist opinion from US ( from the guy who discovered REM sleep disorder and its association with neurodegeneration) .
He was brillant. They felt the emg recording during the night picked up was a few leg twitches in REM sleep so probably breakthrough fasciculations and extension of my BFS. They see this a lot in narcoleptics.
Interestingly he said that it is easy to spot loss of atonia if recorded in context of the complex motor movements seen in REM Sleep disorder ( shouting, jumping out of bed etc). However isolated REM Atonia loss on its own is harder to define.
He said that most PSG labs in UK are set up to detect apnea and often don't score, quantify or recognise isolated loss of REM atonia correctly. Only a few labs in Europe are at present involved in the global drive to define and reach consensous on creating a gold standard to score isolated REM without atonia.
Not sure how many electrodes you had on. My study had emg electrodes on my chin , one each bicept and on both TA muscles, but my sleep neurologist himself said it can still be hard to define from artefacts.. On top of this they said that my sleep cycles were all over the place so it was impossible to tell from the reading if it was true loss of atonia. I have never acted out dreams.
I was called back by the NHS sleep lab last month to clarify and under go a further 2 night PSG test, coupled to a daytime multi latency sleep test, and then be fitted with an activity meter for a further 2 days. They said my case was very unusual...... Told them I didn't want their tests....I will take narcolepsy and run I don't want anymore info.
However I wish that people are properly warned beforehand that PSGs HAVE the ability to throw up strong reliable early biomarkers of neurodegeneration. Certain problems develop in the brain so the electrical activity wont turn off like it should during sleep and these subtle malfunctions will be detected with PSGs...what may seem like a harmless sleep study can actually tell you your brain has started down an unstoppable path to dementia with a certainty nearing 90%. As there are no neuroprotective agents on the market you are given this info and then left.
So anyone considering a sleep study please please be careful and ask questions before blindly going on a PSG sleep study. I didn't and ended up with information I couldn't do anything with but worry. Although often they won't mention if they recorded isolated REM without Atonia unless you ask, they are duty bound to say if the PSG showed REM sleep disorder.
Hx