Mike Birbiglia is a contributor to This American Life. I heard his Moth routine where describes his REM sleep disorder and how it affected his life. This disorder is characterized by the person acting out what he is dreaming. Usually the dream is about being chased while the dreamer tries to run away.
The movie is about Mike’s beginning as a comedian, his girlfriend and his sleep disorder. He wasn’t all that successful as a comedian but his girlfriend (Lauren Ambrose was awesome in this role) is supportive in his life and career. He knows he should break up with her, having cheated on her while he was on the road. But instead of breaking up, he proposes. When he starts using his relationship as comedy fodder in his routine, he becomes more successful.
I don’t want to get married until I’m sure that nothing else good is going to happen in my life”
Because he doesn’t address his dread of getting married, the sleepwalking becomes very bad since stress worsens the condition. The story culminates with Mike jumping out the second-story closed window of a hotel while he’s sleepwalking. He realizes he must break up with his girlfriend.
The movie ends by Mike showing us how he has to sleep: in a sleeping bag zipped up to his neck with mittens on his hands so he can’t unzip the sleeping bag.
Hard to watch at times: the real agony of a bad relationship, the real pain of bombing at a job, the cringe-worthy scene where shards of glass are removed from the leg after the hotel jump. Bittersweet but good.