ABSTRACT
Luciano Ribeiro Pinto Jr. Neurology and Sleep Medicine, Brazilian Academy of Neurology, Universidade Federal de São Paulo Hospital Alemão Oswaldo Cruz, São Paulo (SP), Brazil
Andrea Frota Bacelar Rêgo Neurology and Sleep Medicine, Brazilian Academy of Neurology, Universidade Federal de São Paulo Hospital Alemão Oswaldo Cruz, São Paulo (SP), Brazil
Corresponding author: Luciano Ribeiro Pinto Jr., E-mail: lucianoribeiro48@gmail.com
ABSTRACT
The causes of dementia are: Alzheimer’s Disease, frontotemporal lobar degeneration, Dementia with Lewy body (DLB) disease, Multiple System Atrophy (MSA), Huntington disease, Prion disease and Parkinson disease. Sleep disturbances (SD) in Parkinson disease (PD) were recognized as early as 1817, by James Parkinson. PD, Multiple system atrophy and DLB are synucleinopathies. Progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP), however, results from the deposit of the tau protein forming tangles within the glial cells. Sleep-related problems in dementias and Parkinson disease
can be divided into disturbances of sleep and disturbances of wakefulness. The sleep disorders in degenerative dementias are: sleep architecture alterations; changes in the circadian sleep-wake rhythm, insomnia, sleep fragmentation, increased periods of wakefulness during the night, sundowning syndrome, sleeprelated breathing disorders, periodic limb movement disorder (PLM), restless leg syndrome (RLS) and parasomnias like REM sleep behavior disorder (RBD). Polysomnography and Multiple Sleep Latency (MSLT) are valuable tests in patients with PD and dementias.
