Sleep Disturbances May Precede, and Worsen, Your Parkinson’s Disease Symptoms

This important article discusses recent research that suggests (1) sleep problems may precede a diagnosis of Parkinson’s, and (2) they may also worsen your condition after you get PD.  The 2nd point is the one I’m most concerned with now!

Here’s an opening quote that greases my engine:

Patients with Parkinson’s disease often suffer from recurrent sleep disorders and disturbances in circadian rhythm, the roughly 24-hour biological cycle of humans. But whether those disturbances impact the development and progression of Parkinson’s has been unclear. “Many think that sleep disturbances are secondary to Parkinson’s disease,” Dr. Praticò explained. “But circadian rhythm disturbances are increasingly reported before the onset of Parkinson’s, suggesting that they could be risk factors.”

The bulk of the article describes an experiment with mice, which were divided into four groups:

• Group A:  lived under normal light/dark circumstances:  12 hours light + 12 hours darkness.  This was referred to as “a normal circadian rhythm.”
• Group B:  lived under the same conditions, but were treated with a neurotoxin called MPTP, which induces Parkinson’s symptoms.
• Group C:  lived in off-kilter light/dark fluctuations:  20 hours of light + 4 hours of darkness.
• Group D:  also lived in the off-kilter light/dark scenario, but were treated with MPTP as well.

It turned out that the two groups of mice who received MPTP (Groups B and D) developed Parkinson’s, but the off-kilter group (Group D) suffered much more.  To wit:

Assessments of movement and behavior showed that all mice treated with MPTP developed Parkinson’s disease, but animals with altered circadian rhythm experienced significant learning impairments. They also exhibited severe motor deficits, with drastic reductions in motor coordination and motor learning skills – far worse than the deficits observed in MPTP-treated mice with normal circadian rhythm.

Scary!

So what does this mean for us humans?  To my mind, practice good sleep hygiene if you’re a Parkie.  If you aren’t sleeping well, do something about it!  Which in my case means:  work out more at the gym, especially by lifting weights.  The more I pump iron at the gym, the better my sleep quality is for the next few nights.  And of course, don’t drink coffee at night.  Don’t watch TV or play video games in bed.  Avoid alcohol as a means of making you drowsy, because you’ll wake up totally alert later in the night.  Mention your sleep difficulties to your doctor, who may prescribe medication.

And did I mention exercise???

BTW, I always find it odd that circadian rhythms are “roughly” 24 hours.  What’s up with that?  Why not “exactly” 24 hours?   Note to self:  Add this question to the “My Parkinson’s Disease Questions” section of the website.

To read more on this topic of biological clocks and sleep/wake cycles, check out my article on the crepuscular lifestyle of many animals, including our two house cats!  Title: Crepuscular!

For more sleep-related posts, try these:

• Sleep Guide for Parkies
• Sleep On It
• Which Side Do You Sleep On?
• Sleep, Sleep, Sleep
• The Role of Sleep in Language Learning

Meanwhile, here are some of the mice sleeping off their hard work in the experiment I described above.  (Joke!)