Alan Alda has revealed he was “physically acting out his dreams”, which he described as a “not very well-known” symptom of Parkinson’s, before being diagnosed with the neurodegenerative disease.
“I had a dream that someone was attacking me. And I picked up a sack of potatoes and threw it at them,” the “M*A*S*H” actor, 90, explained in a new interview with “CBS Mornings.”
“What I was actually doing was throwing a pillow at Arlene, my wife,” he added.
Alda – who received his Parkinson’s diagnosis in 2015 but waited three years to reveal the news publicly – said that initially he did not exhibit the disease’s most common symptoms.
“I had no tics, no tremors, no problems with my voice,” he said.
Instead, he showed signs of REM sleep behavior disorder (RBD), in which the brain fails to paralyze skeletal muscles during REM sleep, causing a person to act out their dreams.
RBD is often linked to Parkinson’s disease, although not everyone with sleep symptoms is diagnosed with a neurological disorder.
Alda told “CBS Mornings” that he relies heavily on his sense of humor to cope with how Parkinson’s disease affects his daily life.
“I’ll be at the computer keyboard writing an email, and Dr. Parkinson moves my hand all over the screen. I have the mouse, and he eliminates things and he deletes things that I need,” he said with a laugh.
“Every now and then I get frustrated,” the actor continued. “But I find what makes me laugh, and then I’ll tell Arlene.”
The Emmy Award winner, however, admitted that he hated the fact that his wife of nearly 70 years had to help him button his shirt every morning.
“I hate it, but the only thing that’s helpful is, ‘What haven’t I tried?’ And very quickly you feel like, ‘If I keep looking for new ways to try, I’ll find a solution,'” he shared.
Alda also said he tries to stay in “reality” amid his health battle.
“I don’t want to wish it. I can’t wish it,” he noted. “I can’t hope for a better future. I have to accept what is.”
Alda added: “I don’t let Parkinson’s define me. It’s not who I am. It’s just a hobby.”
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