Is late night snacking a symptom of PD or something else? Is it a concern? + Need stability for insomnia

[daughter-Advocate]

I'd say dad has insomnia in a sense that when he goes to sleep, he might be able to get 1-2.5 hours after his bedtime medications and gets up to pee almost every hour, even if he's on a strong sedative like Seroquel.

After each bathroom trip, he has a harder time falling asleep so he does a little late night snacking in the living room around 1-2am and paces around until he tries to fall asleep again <> bathroom <> pace <> try again.

Is this a symptom of PD or... is it just a bad sleep routine? He does this every night for as long as I can remember.

He is 72 and diagnosed with PD (Bradykinesia) this year. At best, he might be able to only get 4 hours of sleep when you add the times together. The other times he's mainly pacing around cause he can't fall asleep.. any recs to help with stabilizing this? Doc prescribed Seroquel at a low dose (25mg) to help with sleep (and rid of Hallucinations) but man o man does he become like a zombie...and hallucinations still here so it's like it doesn't really do anything aside from zombifying him - he can't even get himself back up to bed sometimes. So concerning to the heart. (Also read in the last 24 hrs that Seroquel is not FDA approved to be used for insomnia. It's commonly misprescribed for that. It's supposed to be only prescribed to calm schizophrenia and bipolar disorder!!)

[park_bear]

My routine - I awaken at a similar time as your dad, have a snack, and settle into my recliner for Chi meditation until dawn. In western spiritual terms this would be referred to as abiding in Divine Love. Best thing ever, and makes up for missing sleep. My Qigong story here: healthunlocked.com/cure-par...

I take the snacking to be a symptom of Bear nature

[CRMACK1948]

The urge to pee every hour seems to be why he is having such bad nights,It sounds like he needs to be referred to a urologist,to check out his prostate.Possibly melatonin would be a better sleep enhancer than chemical dose he is on,it also has beneficial side effects for Parkinson’s.

[daughter-Advocate in reply to CRMACK1948]

Thank you. Dad has a Urologist since 2019 who said the prostate was enlarged diagnosed with BPH and prescribed him with Tamsulosin 0.4mg. The appointments are annually and the last followup in 2022 came back with "the size of the prostate is not within an enlarged range so he doesn't have BPH, but continue the medication".... which confused me bc if he doesn't have an enlarged prostate anymore, then how is the med helping the freq urination?The Tamsulosin is a part of his bedtime medication, along with a suggested dose of 200mg of Gabapentin but even then it feels like it's not doing much.

(I think it helps to set the stage that my dad was on numberous pain killers for the past 10 years and thankfully, GRATEFULLY.... his stomach is still doing ok. I would say his body protects him really well, but he certainly doesn't think so bc of his chronic back + neck pain that's been there since 2012. Frequent urination at night + insomnia were his primary nighttime disruptions but now the new Hallucinations side effects 🙄😮‍💨).

Thanks for the Melatonin recommendation. I am finding out there's an extended release version which might be helpful to try.

[CRMACK1948 in reply to daughter-Advocate]

I think the idea of continuing to take the Tamulosin is to prevent the prostate from enlarging again.Before my husband was prescribed the same drug he was taking saw palmetto,and still continues to do so.His PSA went from28 to 5 before he was prescribed the drug from his urologist,and his need to get up constantly during the night went from 9 times to twice.You might like to research saw palmetto.I get it from British Supplements,it’s a high dose,but really seems to work.Iv found there are quite a few supplements that have helped my husband,that his neurologist has no time for any of them..It’s worth looking” outside the box” when you are caring for a loved one with Parkinson’s.If your Neurologist won’t prescribe Melatonin,you can buy it legally on the internet from America.I get some from Piping Rock,they are well priced and deliver quickly.The amount that your neurologist might be less than your husband needs,it isn’t addictive,has no side effects,so I give C.6 mg.of slow release pills, ut give him a10 mg instant release pill that you suck from Piping Rock once he is in bed.He is usually asleep in 5 minutes,and doesn’t have that hungover feeling in the morning.He wakes in the night,but goes back to sleep quite quickly.Hopesome of this might help.Bx

[daughter-Advocate in reply to CRMACK1948]

Yes it does! Thank you for the helpful info!

[jeffmayer]

Try taking a bottle to bed it doesn't mean your old and decrepit just makes sense saves you moving

[jeffmayer]

Try taking a bottle to bed it doesn't mean your old and decrepit just makes sense saves you moving

[Ctime]

To get through the night:

Terazosin helped with my urinary urgency and may have some helpful effects with PD.

Melatonin

most nights 200 mg of ibuprofen.

1/4 pill of C/L

I keep a jar of CBD tincture by my bed and if I wake up with bad dreams or anxious, I take a squirt of that .

[daughter-Advocate in reply to Ctime]

Was your Terazosin prescribed by the urologist, PCP or Neuro? What parts of PD did you noticed it helping?

[Ctime in reply to daughter-Advocate]

I asked the PCP to prescribe which he did at 2mg. I did this soon after I was diagnosed based on early research that it MIGHT have some preventative effect. That research has strengthened. There are a number of articles about it .

This one has good links. nature.com/articles/s41531-....

This one starts dry but a search for PPMI is informative. jci.org/articles/view/129987