Disturbed sleep

Usually my husband is asleep as soon as his head hits the pillow. I am nervous about sleeping in the same bed as he has woken up after hitting his wardrobe, found himself on the floor and the most worrying was when he woke up punching 6 bells out of my pillow. Thank goodness my head wasn't on it at the time!
He says that he is dreaming and exceedingly angry with someone.
Also, I am woken up, like last night, with him wailing like a banshee, as if he is experiencing something so terrible. This morning he remembered nothing about it.
He is due to see our excellent neurologist next month and I have asked him to mention it. I have stopped going in with him as he is not free to talk with me there.
Has anyone else had this. flo
After the last time he got upset with me talking about him, he is ok with this.
Dear Flo,

Is there a parkinson's nurse at your clinic, if so you can always ring them and chat about the things your husband does, if they are good they will convey it to the consultant who may approach these problems in a general way instead of your husband feeling awkward about them. I hope that makes sense, when I was involved in a branch as welfare I would speak to the nurse quite often on issues like these, then they would deal with it the best way they could.
best wishes
vivian
It seems that most parkinsonians get off to sleep pretty quickly , my husand always has . For years he would wake up aout 2 hrs later thinking he had abeen asleep for much longer . Once he went onto Sinemet Ct along with 10mg Amitriptyline it did help . I elieve they even use Amitriptyline for people without Parkinsons ut have restless legs .
Hi Johnnie and Vivian. We don't have a PD nurse but the neurologist is very helpful. I am hoping that he will talk about the subject himself, my feeling is that his meds need tweaking. He is not at ease with me talking about it at all, but I have to. We go to our local PD meetings but can't really talk to anyone about it.
People there obviously have more concerns than my O/H and I would feel awkward.
To look at him you would not think anything was wrong with him. flo
Hello Flo . When my husand was first diagnosed I left most of the talking to him but I would notice the consultant glance at me .

My husband wasn't happy when I joined in but I explained that sometimes he wasn't able to explain himself as well as he used to and it was almost as if he didn't know himself anyway .

So I started to keep a diary of sorts until our next visit when I would write down all the things I thought he should know . They are limited with the time they can allow each patient and I think we are all aware of it There is nothing worse than coming away and realise that you had forgotten to tell them everything. By doing this you don't waffle on and waste his or your time .

I asked the consultant if he minded and handed it to him to read . Try to break it up as short as you can . Then he goes through it all with both of us .

He always seemed pleased for me to do it and my husband has accepted it , I do realise how difficult it has been for my husband because until now it has never been neccessary for me to go to the doctors even with me

I usually go through it all with my husband before we go .

Of course evryone is different and at different stages.

Good luck Flo will be thinking of you BOTH

We have never seen a Parkinsons nurse but generally get an appointment with the consultant every 4 months .
Hi Johnnie. Showed my husband the Q & A on sleep and it is sinking in that it is a problem. I am writing down the main things that have happened and he doesn't want to give it to the doctor but will talk about it. We came across the notes we had done last year and it was helpful to see how things compare.
It must be quite scary to have these things happen during your sleep, I know that I would be in the defensive as he is, we can only try to help. flo
Hello Flo, I have been dx for 11 years and for many of those years I have experienced terrible night terrors. I never recall my behavior the next morning, however my husband tells me of my lashing out screaming ect. He has had the bruising to prove it many times an it's very disturbing, he refuses to sleep in the other room though, so I really don't know what the answer is. I've discussed it with my neuro in the past, she just simply seems to make a note of it but never offers any constructive advice.

We recently stayed in a caravan in France and I'm sure some of our neighbors must have thought I was been murdered on a number of occasions. It seems to me that we just have to grin and bear it....well at least I'm not the one wearing the bruises!!!

Glenchass
HI Flo
I have the dscreaming abdaps in my sleep and thrash around the bed. I have even fallen out of bed and woken with a black eye. My excellent PD nurse and the consultant increased the Amytripliene to 30mg per night and if this didn't bring quieter sleep then they suggested Clonasapam ( a sleeping drug) but I haven't taken this yet. Hub says I don't thrash around so much on the increased Amytriptilene even though I am still pretty vocal. So there is a suggestion which might work for you but talk the the medics first as everyone has different reactions to meds.
Hi Glenchass and Jennyb, I have my own room now, at first it was awkward but it is normal now. Hopefully the neurologist will be be helpful, I think he will be. flo
Hi My husband also had trouble with Hallucinations lashing out and screaming . The ABDABS lol Takes me back to when we first married and my hsuabnd warned me about the fact that he hard the ABDABS !!!! had them for many years .

He has been much better since taking Amitriptyline . Although he was also put on Digoxin for his heargt . The worse week of our lives it affected dreadfully .

As soon as we stopped he was fine , so a lot of meds can have adverse effects .

Such a lot of trial and error . Need to go with your gut feelings sometimes
Hi all

Flo, you mentioned the sleep Q&A. For anyone else who hasn't seen this and is experiencing similar problems, we ran a Q&A session with Kevin Morgan, a sleep researcher with expertise in conditions such as Parkinson's.

Kevin did an excellent job at answering people's questions - you can read the transcript of the session at http://bit.ly/Nw5Cvt

I hope this is helpful.

Sharon
Hi all. Un update on my husband's sleep problems. After several incidents he discussed it with his neurologist, who prescribed Clonazepam. After reading the leaflet, he panicked and wouldn't take them. Then recently, during one stressful dream, he bent to pick up something to hit a rat with, and woke after finding himself out of bed and he had banged his head hard against the radiator.He hit the radiator so hard it woke me up, I was in another room. I was horified and insisted that he talk to someone about this before he ended up killing himself.
We now have a Parkinson's nurse, and after talking to her he decided to give Clonazapam a try. It is early days yet but he says he is sleeping better and I haven't heard anything in the night, so fingers crossed.flo