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On Sat 06 Dec, JNewman101 wrote: > I am puzzled by the lack of discussion on this subject. It's my impression > that one does not have symptoms of Parkinsons while asleep. Is there a > neurological switch that gets turned off? Maybe it just turns off parts of the > system. It is my understanding that the area of the brain which is affected in PD - the substantia nigra, is a sort of 'central switchboard' for signals from thr brain to the muscles involved in bodily movement, and the control system dealing with the basic, autonomic functions (without which we would die), is routed through another part of the brain. In the case of the very rare Steele-Richardson syndrome (which can result in loss of autonomic function) the changes observed in the brain are not in the substantia nigra; they occur in completely different parts of the brain. I agree with your observations about not shaking when asleep, but that should not be interpreted as 'normal' sleep: In my case, and most PWPs I expect, I find that I lie totally inert for maybe 4 to 5 hours of sleep. This is in sharp contrast with a 'normal' person, who frequently turns over or makes other movements. It seems that the movement control system needs the weak and feeble signal coming from the brain to generate the unstable feedback control sustem which is, in essence, the way most of our movement control systems work. When we are asleep, the feeble signal disappears, and so we don't move - at all! Regards, -- Brian Collins <[log in to unmask]>