SLEEP BENEFIT IN PARKINSONS-DISEASE

Sleep benefit (SB) In Parkinson's disease (PD) is not well characteriz ed. To determine SB frequency, as well as to characterize and correlat e it with other disease variables, we evaluated prospectively a consec utive series of 312 PD patients by means of a structured questionnaire : 55% reported having SB and 35% reported that awakening was their bes t time of the day. Because of SB, 21% of the entire population were ab le to skip or delay medication. The mean duration of the phenomenon wa s 85.4 +/- 67 min. Patients with SB were significantly older (p < 0.00 02), had disease longer (p < 0.05), and were often men (chi(2) = 3.5, df 1, p = 0.05). Patients with SB took sleep medication with similar f requency as those without SB. There were no differences in hours of sl eep or sleep latency. Sleep problems such as nightmares or somnambulis m, but not the number of sleep awakenings, were similar in both groups . In conclusion, SB is a frequent phenomenon, especially in men, elder ly patients, and patients with longer disease duration. SB enables the morning L-dopa dose to be postponed in similar to 50% of patients.