Parkinson’s News TodayLevodopa Taken at Bedtime Can Help with Quality Sleep, Small Study Finds

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Levodopa administration before bedtime shows promise in improving sleep quality for Parkinson’s disease patients, according to a recent small study. The research, led by Professor Fábio Barbieri at São Paulo State University, utilized actigraphy devices to objectively measure sleep patterns in 23 adults with mild to moderate Parkinson’s disease.

Key Points:

• The study included 23 Parkinson’s patients (11 men, 12 women) aged 50 and older, all in early to middle disease stages.
• Patients wore actigraph devices for four consecutive nights to monitor sleep-wake patterns.
• Levodopa use before bedtime resulted in a 7.8% increase in total sleep time and a 3.7% increase in sleep efficiency.
• The medication reduced nighttime awakenings by 29.2% and time spent awake after falling asleep by 22.3%.
• Patients who responded well to levodopa experienced a 6.6% decrease in sleep efficiency when going to bed without the fourth dose.
• Despite objective improvements, patients reported little subjective difference in sleep quality between on and off nights.
• The study’s limitations include its small size and short duration, with findings potentially not applicable to advanced Parkinson’s patients using higher levodopa doses.

“Clinicians should take these findings into account when deciding whether to administer levodopa to [Parkinson’s] patients before they go to bed at night.”
– Fábio Barbieri, PhD

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