<h1> Are you still dreaming of the lambs, Clarice? </h1>

Most people with Parkinson's are also wont to suffer from Sleep disturbances. A Particularly curious sleep disorder is REM Sleep Disorder and its role in PD.

Sleep is made up of two major stages: Rapid Eye Movement (RM) and non Rapid Eye Movement (NREM) with the later broken up into 4 stages (5 stages of sleep in total). These 5 stages cycle over and over during one's sleep, in this pattern NREM, REM, NREM, NREM, NREM. In the REM period the brain is stimulated and dreams occur. For most people, a dream is just a dream, but for people with REM sleep disorder, the dream can become a nightmare. The nightmare can cause the victim to act out his fantasy by yelling, tossing and turning and even kicking and punching. Neither the sufferer nor the sufferer's partner are going to get a good night's sleep and going to bed can be hard on the health of both. To loosely quote Edgar A Poe: Sleep, is just a little slice of death. How I hate it

Interestingly, in my reading, I came upon this:

The first work showed in 2006 that 45% of patients who suffer this sleep disorder develop Parkinson's disease and other neurodegenerative diseases caused by a lack of dopamine in the brain. The second article discovered that neuroimaging tests that measure dopamine in the brain, such as the brain SPECT, are useful to identify patients with REM sleep disorders with increased risk of developing a neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson's disease.

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So does PD cause REM sleep disorder or is REM sleep disorder just a precursor of PD or is it just another symptom of PD?

Who knows? Who cares?

I do. I care. I have read that the REM phase is the most important stage. It is the stage where the body is in a semi paralyzed state. It is the restorative stage. I never suffered from real life dreams like I now frequently have, scaring my wife, and myself, with yells and twitches. I like my REM sleep. Without it, I wake up tired and out of sorts. I have to drag myself through the day.

REM disturbance isn't he only problem for PWP, it is just one of several sleep irritants. Other nuisances include: excessive daytime sleepiness, restless leg movements, major twitches, and muscle cramps.

Add to that list, my own major complaints which include the effort to get into my bed because of its height (like scaling the Matterhorn), the inability roll over (I am stuck in my initial position for much of the night) and finally, the adventure of getting out of bed.

Oh, and I forgot, what am I supposed to do when I hear my 4:00 AM internal wakeup call. It's a silent call. Something about my condition has played havoc with my circadian rhythm. I am doomed. I am going to be awake at this ungodly hour forever. What to do? What to do? I got it! I am just going to have to turn on my bedside lamp and dive into a good book. After all, as someone once said, reading is the 3rd best thing to do in bed