Two studies reported that approximately 75 percent of people living with Parkinson's disease struggle to turn over at night. In fact, about 20 percent of people with Parkinson's cannot turn at all.
There are three common strategies people use if they have trouble turning at night. The first one is known as hip pitching where a person can change their position by rocking their hips back and forth, enough to get the momentum to change their position. An additional strategy is using support such as bars attached to the bed. The final strategy is to sit up. After sitting up, a person can lie down in a different position.
Two researchers in England surveyed 39 Parkinson's disease patients to understand how their ability or inability to turn affected their sleep. They translated their surveys into statistics and found that:
- Thirty-six of the 39 study participants reported trouble staying asleep at night. However, getting to sleep was not an issue with the group in this study.
- All of the patients in the study who could not turn over were in the intermediate to advanced stages of Parkinson's disease.
- Hip pitching was the most frequently used strategy for turning over.
- Depressed or anxious patients did not have more or less trouble with turning over.
- The people who could not turn over did not have worse sleep quality than those who could.
It would be easy to assume that being able to turn over at night may make your sleep better. However, this appears not to be the case. We wish the report noted the percentage of the "successful turners" as compared to "unsuccessful turners", who were taking medications to aid and enhance sleep.
If you are frustrated with sleep, please mention it to your neurologist. Many people living with Parkinson's benefit from a sleeping pill.
Source: Movement Disorders, 2006
