Quality of sleep in patients with Parkinson's disease

ABSTRACT

Parkinson's disease [PD] is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder causing motor and non-motor symptoms. The latter are common and include autonomic dysfunction, cognitive impairment, and sleep difficulties. Many of the non-motor aspects of PD such as sleep disturbance are more common and significantly affect the day-to-day activities of patients and their quality of life. The most important aim of this study was to evaluate the sleep quality in patients with PD. This case-control study was performed on patients with PD referred to the Neurology Clinic of our teaching hospital in 2011. Thirty-four patients with PD and 34 healthy people as control group were enrolled in this study. Sleep quality of patients and control was evaluated by Parkinson's disease sleep scale [PDSS] questionnaire. PDSS is a reliable and valid tool to measure sleep disorders in PD. The mean total PDSS score in patient group was 55.29 [SD = 26.92] indicating moderate to severe sleep disturbances whereas, the mean total score in control group was 20.34 [SD = 10.65]. Difference between the two groups' mean scores was significant [P < 0.05]. Our study demonstrated that patients with PD experienced poorer nocturnal sleep quality than the control group