Sleep disturbances in Parkinson's disease with emphasis on rapid eye movement sleep behavior disorder

Sleep disturbances are common in patients with Parkinson's disease (PD). These disturbances can primarily affect the patient's quality of life and may worsen the symptoms of PD. Among the multiple sleep disturbances in PD patients, there has been a marked growing interest in rapid eye movement (REM) sleep behavior disorder (RBD). This is likely due to the fact that RBD has been proven to precede the motor symptoms of PD by many years. The aim of this article is to examine the sleep disturbances found in PD, with special attention to RBD as a premotor symptom of PD, as well as to assess its proposed related pathophysiology. MEDLINE (1966-March 2010), American Academy of Sleep Medicine's, The International Classification of Sleep Disorders, and current textbooks of sleep medicine were searched for relevant information. Search terms: RBD, sleep disturbances, Parkinson's disease, and pre-motor were used. Excessive daytime sleepiness (EDS), sleep attack, insomnia, restless leg syndrome (RLS), sleep-disordered breathing (SDB), and RBD are sleep disturbances commonly found in the literature related to PD. Sleep benefit has been proven to lessen PD motor symptoms. RBD has been described as a premotor symptom of PD in several prospective, retrospective, and cross-sectional studies. Sleep disturbances in PD can result secondarily to natural disease progression, as a side effect of the medications used in PD, or in result of pre-clinical pathology. Treatment of sleep disturbances in PD patients is crucial, as what is termed as, "sleep benefit effect" has been shown to improve the symptoms of PD.