This article looks at the issues of excessive daytime sleepiness and unintended sleep episodes in patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) and explores the reasons why patients might suffer from these symptoms, and what steps could be taken to manage them. During the last decade, understanding of sleep/wake regulation has increased. Several brainstem nuclei and their communication pathways in the...

BACKGROUND Narcolepsy is a predominantly rapid eye movement sleep disorder with onset usually in the second decade but often in earlier childhood. Classically it is characterized by combinations of excessive sleepiness especially sleep attacks, cataplexy, hypnagogic hallucinations, and sleep paralysis. The psychosocial effects of this lifelong condition are not well documented, especially in ch...

Daytime sleepiness in children and adolescents has negative consequences on schoolchildren's daily life and functioning (1-3). Thus it is important to evaluate the prevalence of daytime sleepiness and to find out its predictors. The prevalence of excessive daytime sleepiness in children and adolescents has varied between 0 and 35% in epidemiological studies (4-10). An increase of daytime sleepi...