Rapid eye movement sleep parasomnias

Classification of the parasomnias includes primary and secondary sleep phenomena that can emerge throughout the sleep cycle. Rapid eye movement (REM) sleep behavior disorder (RBD) is the REM sleep parasomnia that is of greatest relevance and interest to neurologists. This article, therefore, focuses primarily on this recently identified syndrome that has a corresponding animal model. Other REM sleep parasomnias also are described briefly.