Hello,

Since Tena opened this thread about sleep, I thought I could try to help a bit with no pretention to be complete, since it is my field (but I am only studying to be a sleep technologist, no doctor or medical student). Now, society feels more and more concerned about sleep quality and sleep disorders, becauseit is involved in accidents, at work, on the road, in economy, in many ways.

And in PD, there is a large range of sleep disorders as the Locus Coeruleus, which function is, among others, to control wakefulness, is touched, and that is not the only reason. (It is also the reason why people with depression, anxiety etc suffer of sleep disorders, mostly either of insomnia or hypersomnia (tendancy to sleep "too much")

Here is one more site on sleep disorders, with audio resources etc :

http://www.docguide.com/news/content...ep%20Disorders

AND, scrolling through the list of channels I just found that there was one dedicated to PD :

http://www.docguide.com/news/content...=Parkinson%27s


RBD (Rapid-Eye-Movement Sleep Behavior Disorder

Is a very hard to live with sleep disorder. It consists in acting one's dream. Example : a man dreams that someone wants to harm his wife, he wants to protect her and starts to hit the agressor. Unfortunately, in real life, he hits his wife sleeping beside him. Other example, one wants to run aways, but runs into a door and hurts himself. Bruises and broken bones can be caused by that. It responds well to treatment, so there is no need to cope with it.

It happens because while, normally, in REM sleep, the muscles' tonus is inhibited, but not in that disorder.

http://www.sleepdisorderchannel.com/rem/

INSOMNIA (we can discuss several types of insomnia)

Insomnia is a part of PD. But I would distinguish

- Sleep onset trouble

(Not to mention those who don't go to sleep but fall asleep as soon as they do, that is mainly a question of decision, and everyone "weighs" his reasons to stay up or get rest for himself)

http://www.sleepeducation.com/Disorder.aspx?id=62

Delayed sleep phase syndrome (a circadian rythm abnormality which is not, I suppose, especially a part of PD more than in the general population but that has to be verified, which consists in not being able to fall asleep before two in the morning. People with that condition go to bed late and get up late, because their whole endogenous circadian rythms, melatonin, temperature, alertness etc are delayed compared to other people. Treatment is phototherapy. Advanced or delayed phase syndrome can be idiopathic or caused by depression, a.o.)

Advanced sleep phase syndrome is just the opposite. One goes to sleep early or very early, and wakes up early or very early. The discomfort of those two syndromes are mainly social, because people who suffer of them are not synchronized with their family's rythms and can't help it. As a reminder, you have to types of rythms, endogenous, and clues from the outside, social clues, daylight...

Hard time getting to sleep. I suppose that PwP's sometimes experience either uncomfortable features when they lay down like tremor and so on but suppose, too, that drugs help (correct me wherever I am wrong, please)

Or a bad sleep hygiene (drinking coffee, tea before bedtime, it should be better to avoid exciting activities like sport...)

http://www.umm.edu/sleep/sleep_hyg.html

-Troubles maintining sleep.

Features like RLS - Restless legs syndrome

http://www.rls.org/NetCommunity/Page...=184&srcid=178

DAYTIME SLEEPINESS (either as a feature of the disease itself or as an effect of dopamine agonists), or an effect of additional sleepdisorder like sleep apnoea

Daytime or excessive sleepiness? Possible causes

The most common cause of daytime sleepiness is simply a lack of sleep.

Some medications have that side-effect, among them, dopamine agonists, always read the warnings. But you know all that.

Daytime sleepiness intrinsic to PD - to investigate. Have any of you experienced daytime sleepiness before taking PD medication or being diagnosed? Have you experienced that you were sleepy during the day but not during the nigh (why? in your opinion?)

http://www.neurology.org/cgi/content/abstract/58/7/1019

Everything that can interrupt your sleep (periodic limb movements, pain that wakes you up, etc.)

Sleep Apnoea (central or obstructive, or even complex - a 'mix' of the two sleep apnoea

http://www.sleepapnea.org/info/index.html
http://www.stanford.edu/~dement/apnea.html
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/q...&dopt=Abstract

Melatonin (keep also in mind that Melatonin is ONLY produced in the dark, which means that, if you sleep during the day, you should feel concerned and so should your relatives that the room in which you sleep must be darkened) has been discussed.

More links : (there are a lot to be found, so... :-)

http://ageing.oxfordjournals.org/cgi...tract/35/3/220


Greetings
Karine