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I just used the prescribed therapy as suggested by the doctor and altered it as I saw the circumstances changing, and the doctor concurred. I did mention the dosage of the CR which shows a very different pharmacokinetic plot than the regular Sinemet. I use the info from the pharmacokinetic study with reservation inasmuch as many such studies are carried on with healthy volunteers, and variations due to the time ingested and the closeness to meals and the contents of the meals. I know that Bernard Joly of the French list also developed a graphic plot for Sinemet or Modopar, which again cannot serve my needs. The CR did not increase the nightmares nor the night screams, but may have increased the hallucinations. There is also so much we can modify with her drug menu that I prefer to stay as close as possible to the one prescribed by her doctors. This past March I wrote: I can understand pharmacokinetic plots for different drugs, but the one for Sinemet seems a bit more complicated, just assuming we are looking at the absortion rate for dopamine itself. Pharmacokinetics are based on determining plasma level of the drug or the metabolite in vivo. The initial study usually described the conditions of the volunteers tested, whether they are normal or Parkinsonians, the time and content of their meals, etc., and these conditions can severely influence the shape of the curve, and in this case, I suspect it is far from a first degree slope, and likely drops off asymptotically. I have not looked or read any of this material in over 11 years, so that I may just be dreaming. Yet thinking about the frequency of dosing and the duration of being 'on' seems to vary considerably from day to day and from meal to meal, so that a graphic plot of all that would become even more confusing and I would expect a coefficient of error to exceed 50%. I probably make no sense, but I am retired, so I am allowed. Ciau Michel Ron Vetter wrote: > is "the problem" increased nightmares? > > the switch to using CR is not detailed as to dosage, but i have > reservations. i tried CR once to obtain relief from early morn cramp > and spasms. it did not help but it did exaggerate vivid dreams and > thrashing about due to some of these. > > have you ever tried not using the med before bed? or using half as > much? > > i did much research to find the data available to elucidate the blood > concentration of levodopa from regular and CR. this info is in a .pdf > document that requires Adobe Acrobat. it shows that CR has a very > high and abrupt spike and very erratic absorption.