Tre’s childhood nightmares and the diagnosis that explained them

In Room 5 by the BBC, Helena Merriman shares stories of real-life medical mysteries, interviewing people who - like her - were changed by a diagnosis.

In Series 2, Episode 6 - Tre’s lying in bed. He’s 10 years old and his heart’s racing. He’s just seen a strange figure in the corner of his bedroom, and it’s moving towards him. Tre has experiences like this all through his childhood. Nightmares. Hallucinations. Sleep paralysis. One afternoon, at school, his teacher pulls him aside. She’s spotted something in him that she recognises. And so it begins - tests, scans, until the clues come together and reveal a diagnosis that explains everything.