Dear Dream Doctor,

I have had problems sleeping for at least the last 6 years. Whenever I start a new job or my current job gets very stressful, I talk in my sleep and I actually perform the actions of my job in my sleep.

For instance, when I was 16 and a cashier I would sit straight up in my bed at night and type into the air as if I was using a cash register. Also, as a current receptionist I am constantly picking up an imaginary phone and having conversations with people. Sometimes I cry, scream, curse, and hit my boyfriend (we live together).

I usually get up to about 7 hours of sleep a night and I know I constantly change positions. The reason I know some of these things is because sometimes when I do them, I feel myself doing them but I'm sleeping. It's all really strange to me. Do I have a sleeping disorder?

- Christine, Age 20, Brooklyn, NY, USA

Hi Christine -

You are experiencing a mild case of REM Behavior Disorder. The fact that your symptoms increase with stress is common in RBD, and also illustrates an interesting consequence of tension. REM Behavior Disorder is a disorder of too much muscle tone - too much tension in the muscles - during sleep. Your stress - which is mental and emotional - is causing your entire body to tighten up - even into your sleep. And this is why you are "acting out" the behaviors of your dreams - your muscles aren't getting the signal they need to relax!

Because your symptoms appear mild, experts recommend a hot shower or bath before bedtime. This will relax your muscles and help you de-stress from the day's events. Taking fifteen minutes to stretch out before sleep also will help. Have you ever taken a yoga class? If not, you may find it enlightening. Yoga is as close to a science of stretching and release of tension as you'll find. All of these remedies, however - the shower, simple stretching at home, or the more advanced stretching of yoga - should cause an immediate and significant decrease in your symptoms.