Why do people with Parkinson’s disease suffer from insomnia?

  Parkinson’s disease is a common neurodegenerative disease in the middle-aged and elderly, with a prevalence of 1% to 2% in people over 65 years of age. In addition to motor dysfunction, patients also have non-motor symptoms such as sleep disturbances, autonomic dysfunction, cognitive impairment and psychiatric symptoms. Patients with Parkinson’s disease often need medication to fall asleep every night due to sleep problems, and sleep disorders in Parkinson’s disease should be taken seriously by clinicians and treated actively.  Insomnia is one of the most common sleep disorders in patients with Parkinson’s disease. The main manifestations are difficulty falling asleep after going to bed, or waking up easily after falling asleep, and difficulty falling asleep again after waking up, or waking up earlier than expected, such as at 4-5 a.m., and being unable to fall asleep again after waking up. If you have any of these sleep problems, it is called insomnia. Insomnia in Parkinson’s disease patients is different from insomnia in other people. Insomnia in other people is mainly related to anxiety, psychological stress, poor living habits, and poor sleep environment, while insomnia in Parkinson’s disease patients is more directly related to interference from Parkinson’s disease symptoms and interference from medications.  There are several main reasons for this: 1. Inadequate doses of medication at night make it difficult for patients to move and turn over; 2. Spasms and pain in the extremities and various somatic discomforts may cause patients to sleep poorly.  3, too high a dose of medication before bedtime, patients with Parkinson’s disease may experience involuntary movements, sometimes accompanied by unnamable peripheral discomfort and restlessness, all of which interfere with sleep.  4, Parkinson’s disease drugs affect, such as amantadine, Silegiline, etc., have a certain interference with sleep, try to avoid using at bedtime.  5, non-motor symptoms of Parkinson’s disease, such as urinary frequency and urgency, can exacerbate insomnia. Repeatedly getting up to use the toilet not only interferes with the sleep of Parkinson’s disease patients, but also aggravates the risk of getting up at night and falling, all of which require more effort and patience on the part of patients and their families.  The first thing that needs to be adjusted to improve the insomnia problem is Parkinson’s disease treatment medication to improve sleep by improving the symptoms at night. When these do not work, or if the patient with Parkinson’s disease has a combination of anxiety or depression that interferes with sleep, additional sleep-promoting medications need to be used under the guidance of a physician.