Sleep Quality in Patients with Parkinson's Disease

Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder causing motor and non-motor symptoms. The latters 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 everyday activities and quality of life of patients. The most important aim of this study was to evaluate sleep quality in patients with PD. In this case-control study، 34 patients with PD and 34 healthy controls were included. The patients had referred to the Neurology Clinic of our teaching hospital (Isfahan، Iran) in 2011. Sleep quality of all subjects was evaluated by Parkinson’s Disease Sleep Scale (PDSS) which is a reliable and valid tool to measure sleep disorders in PD. The mean total PDSS score in patients was 55. 29 ± 26. 92 which indicated moderate to severe sleep disturbances. The mean total score in the control group was 20. 34 ± 10. 65. The difference between mean scores of the two groups was statistically significant (P < 0. 05). Our study demonstrated that patients with PD experienced poorer nocturnal sleep quality than the control group.