Objective: The aim is to investigate sleep and sleep related disorders in essential tremor patients compared with Parkinson’s disease patients and healthy control subjects.

Background: Postmortem studies showed that brainstem Lewy bodies especially in the locus ceruleus were significantly more common in ET patients than in controls. Among its other functions locus ceruleus has a significant role in sleep regulation.

Methods: Sixty six cases with ET, 34 cases with PD and 52 healthy subjects, totally 152 subjects were included. All subjects were assessed by Epworth Sleepiness Scale (ESS), Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), Hamilton Anxiety Rating Scale (HAM-A) and Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS). Polisomnograpic study was performed in 47 (20 ET, 13 PD and 14 control) subjects.

Results: Patients with ET, PD and controls did not differ with respect to age and sex distribution. The mean±SD PSQI scores were 6,44±4,16 in ET group, 7,56±4,57 in PD group and 3,67±3,07 in control group (p=0,000). ESS scores were 3,50±3,99 in ET group, 5,47±5,32 in PD group and 2,44±2,04 in control group (p=0,044). As the scores were higher in ET group than in controls, in PD group ESS scores were the highest. The ratio of subjects in control group with ESS>10 was 0%, it was %14,7 in PD group and %7,6 in ET group. Daytime sleepiness was detected more frequent in ET group than in controls. No significantly difference were found between the results of PSG, (total sleep time, sleep onset, sleep efficiency, sleep latency, Periodic limb movements and duration of REM) in all groups.

Conclusions: Although there were no significantly difference in ploysomnographic findings between groups the ESS and PSQI scores were higher in ET patients compared with controls suggesting sleep dysregulation.

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MDS Abstracts - https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/sleep-in-essential-tremor-patients-a-polysomnographic-study/