Short sleep and poor sleep quality track with Parkinson’s risk

A large Chinese cohort study suggests that sleep patterns, especially short sleep and poor sleep quality, may help identify people at higher risk of Parkinson’s disease before clinical diagnosis.

Study: Sleep and Parkinson’s disease: a population-based study from the CHARLS cohort. Image Credit: Lightspring / Shutterstock

In a recent study published as an Article in Press in the journal npj Parkinson’s Disease, researchers investigated the association between sleep and the risk of Parkinson’s disease (PD).

PD is the second-most prevalent neurodegenerative disease after Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and predominantly affects older adults. Besides motor symptoms, patients with PD often experience non-motor symptoms, including sleep disorders that affect up to 75% of patients. The severity and prevalence of sleep disorders increase with age. Nevertheless, research on the multidimensional impact of sleep disorders in PD patients remains limited.