Study Cites Factors Associated With Sleep Benefit In Parkinson’s Disease

Study Cites Factors Associated With Sleep Benefit In Parkinson’s Disease

Marisa Wexler

Parkinson’s patients who have had the disease for a long time, who do not sleep very efficiently, and have higher motor impairment are more likely to experience sleep benefit — the phenomenon in which Parkinson’s patients wake up feeling better before taking medication.
The study with that finding, “The related factors of sleep benefit in Parkinson’s disease: A systematic review and meta-analysis,” was published recently in PLOS One.

Sleep benefit is, as the investigators wrote, “a fascinating, but mysterious phenomenon.” It is reported to happen in between a third and half of Parkinson’s patients.

The phenomenon is essentially when a person wakes up from sleep and feels better, with fewer disease symptoms. This is particularly puzzling for clinicians because, at least in theory, just waking up is often when a person has no medications helping them along. So, what could cause sleep benefit?

Researchers still are not sure. Some reports suggest that, although patients may report feeling better, they do not actually perform better on objective motor control tests. As such, it might all be psychological.

Still, the team wondered whether patient characteristics — from age and sex to sleep patterns and disease score — might predict which patients would experience sleep benefit.