Parkinson’s Disease (PD) is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder with motor and non-motor symptoms which is why it is recognized as a multi-system disorder. The non-motor symptoms of PD develop slowly over years. Sleep disturbances, such as insomnia, parasomnia, excessive daytime sleepiness, disturbances of wakefulness, REM sleep behaviour disorder, restless leg syndrome, and circadian rhythm disorders can develop years before the onset of PD and affect up to 90% of patients. Sleep disturbances are one of the most burdensome non-motor symptoms people can develop and may play a big role in the pathogenesis of PD. As sleep disturbances can develop years before the onset of PD, they represent an extremely sensitive predictor of PD development. Moreover, in PD, sleep-related symptoms strongly impact clinical motor subtypes and disabilities occurring during the disease, mainly psychiatric and cognitive disorders. Therefore, they are an interesting biomarker for early recognition of subjects at-risk of PD development and a potential therapeutic target to help modify the course of the disease and improve the quality of life of patients and caregivers.

There are many origins for sleep disorders in PD such as neurodegeneration in cortical areas involved in sleep-wake regulation mechanisms and neurotransmitters, the brain stem, thalamus, and hypothalamus which are exacerbated by/ occur concurrently with the detrimental effect of nighttime motor impairment, nocturia, and primary sleep disorders such as sleep-disordered breathing. Sleep has been found to be important for various functions such as the clearing of metabolic waste, the maintenance of brain homeostasis, and is crucial for memory consolidation. Its disruption has been correlated with numerous detrimental effects such as impaired neurotoxic waste clearance, the accumulation of alpha-synuclein that contribute to the pathogenesis of PD, increased oxidative stress in the central nervous system, cognitive impairment neuroinflammation, and impaired executive function.

Understanding the mechanisms involved in the development of these sleep disturbances will allow us to better understand their development, the role they play in the pathogenesis of PD, and the discovery of new, disease-modifying, therapeutic targets. Furthermore, a better understanding of the development of sleep disorders with other non-motor symptoms may help detect PD earlier in patients and allow for a better characterization of sleep disorders in PD.

This Topic welcomes manuscripts addressing Topics such as:

• sleep and neurodegeneration

• sleep disturbances and movement disorders

• sleep disturbances and PD phenoconversion

• sleep disturbances

• motor and non-motor symptoms in PD

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Frontiers in Neuroscience

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