Yes, I do see improved functioning at night. My low times are about 1 in the afternoon.

It has been a pattern of my days (nights?) that I function much better at night.
Remember doing quite a lot of digging into the reasons why this should be so a few years ago. Long and short of it then, from those ask your doctor experts and studies etc was that we are not programmed to need dopamine in the night and so we function quite well without it, somehow tied into melatonin, sleep-wake cycles, and the circadian rhythm thing, which in itself is a mysterious quantity...... not provable but observable, just like this night time thing is with us.

Also notable is functioning better with no sleep, in other words a missed nights sleep does not have me dysfunctional in the morning - no early morning off, but by ten am I am slipping into a bad cycle and starting to feel extremely off.

Lindy-
I think that was a "Go away little patient. The Doctor is busy." thing. We don't need dopamine at night???? Bull puckies!! I vote for the ebb and flow of hormones in the wee hours.

Sometimes it makes me question about how doctors form theories; I wonder if they misplaced "Common Sense" in the quest for the cure?

Along with many other creatures.
The neuroscientists have not spent time on this for nothing.
There IS an ebb and flow of chemistry going on in the brain and the rhythms are there to regulate us.

PD is a condition of dysregulation as well as disorder.

Sleep disruption was one of my first major symptoms, or at least the one of the first that really concerned me.

I don't think it is that off the wall, and I think that the scientists are right to see as creatures who have a lot in common with each other.....

My take...

Lindy


New Regulator of Circadian Clock Identified: Dopamine Study May Have Impact on Activity and Sleep Rhythms in Parkinson's Disease

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases...1020111219.htm

Interactions between Dopamine and Melatonin Organize Circadian Rhythmicity in the Retina of the Green Iguana

http://jbr.sagepub.com/content/22/6/515.abstract

Dopamine Mediates Circadian Rhythms of Rod-Cone Dominance in the Japanese Quail Retina

http://www.jneurosci.org/cgi/content/short/19/10/4132

Circadian rhythms of dopamine, glutamate and GABA in the striatum and nucleus accumbens of the awake rat: modulation by light.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15009508

Definitely need dopamine at night for me!!

All these musings got my Irish up. WTF? Why is it that something as basic as sleep deprivation's effect on PWP is so mysterious that it sends all of us into a wild goose chase for data. "Sleep hygiene." Oy vey. We're doomed. Or at least I am.

Listen, I got fewer than a dozen nights of uninterrupted sleep in the first 5 years of motherhood (2000-2005; I stopped counting after that). I suspect that sleep dysregulation was a hallmark of emerging PD. I suspect it also hastened the onset of my PD (though that was possibly mitigated by the estrogen flooding). The present decade has seen no more than 3 full night of uninterrupted sleep. Like many of you I wake up at 3:30 (if I've gone to sleep at all). I am in pain and Bob Dawson's description of trying myriad different positions is spot on. If I could slither out of my body like a snake shedding her skin I would. But then again, that would take energy, and I'm fresh out.

Of course it's also quiet (except for my snoring family) at that hour. When my three guys take a break from what is surely a sign of existent or impending neurotrouncing sleep apnea, it's really quiet. I love that. Once I am upright and the pain subsides a bit, I feel most myself, mostly because nothing is required of me (no stressors) and my senses are not overloaded by other people's activities and concerns. I am calm and, if I've slept, clear-headed. I can write coherently. My tremor is quiet. My laptop warms me like some cats warm their companion humans. All is right in the world.

Of course, I pay the price the next day for this little island of peace.

And I am 99.44% certain that these habits will hasten my death. Sigh. (BTW, did anyone notice that the Scripps' research release described PD as "fatal." I thought PD's just supposed to make us wish we were dead…? But I digress.)

My friend, who also has PD, just did an overnight sleep study and learned that she stops breathing on average 5 times/hour. She was told that this robs her muscles of oxygen and that is why she awakens in pain. She was told that this also robs her of restorative sleep, which affects memory. This cost her thousands of dollars. She is immensely wealthy so having no insurance is not an impediment, as it is for me. She's got strategies now. I'll report on what they are if anyone is interested.

So I'm pretty sure we would all benefit from a sleep study and could probably find a couple of interventions that would be effective. (I love the acupuncture implants, Fiona, thanks! Maybe that's what Lady Gaga has.) But, you know, on the other hand, I am getting more than a little bored trying to analyze, manage and control every bleeping detail of my life. God, it is so damn dull.

Anyway, I am glad you brought up this relevant, useful topic, Rick. Really. I'm just cranky today. And maybe a wee bit tired.