Sleep study

Hi all! I just wanted to encourage anyone who has severe issues in the morning to get a sleep study done even if you don’t have sleepiness during the day. I live in North Dakota and have pretty limited access to good neurologists or movement disorder specialists. I’ve only been diagnosed for a year and a half and I’ve been pretty discouraged because I am on a much higher dose of sinemet than most people at this stage but I couldn’t function without it. I was so bad in the morning that I would have freezing episodes, could barely walk and I would just have to sit and wait for the sinemet to kick in. Then I would spend the whole day feeling like I never even had enough meds in me. After a very long wait I finally got into a neurologist that actually knows a lot about PD. One of the things he asked me was if I’ve ever had a sleep study. I don’t think any other doctor asked about it because I never had daytime sleepiness even though I didn’t sleep a lot. I had the study done and it showed moderate sleep apnea. I was put on an auto CPAP. Last night was only night 3 on the CPAP but I am amazed at the effect on my PD already. Each morning has been better than the one before. I actually got up to use the bathroom during the night last night and didn’t have to take a sinemet to be able to get back to sleep. Between my breathing episodes and other arousals they said my brain was waking up on average of 40 times an hour. I must have been using up dopamine all night when your brain should be storing it. So get a study done if you have morning issues!