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Ida remarked on her astonishment that I use Sinemet to help me sleep, so in the light of the current discussion I thought I'd better comment: - I do not use it to combat "wakefulness" but to loosen me up enough to get comfortable enough to sleep - I do not use it every night, only when I have trouble sleeping because of stiffness or when I'm pretty sure I am going to. - Like Brian Collins I only take half of my usual dose - and of course no agonists etc. - again like Brian, I began the practice in my 10th year with PD and my experience may have no relevence to people at an earlier stage. Brian comments (and I agree with him): "I believe that like many subjects relating to effects of Parkinsons on ourselves or other PWPs, it is important to define our Age and years since diagnosis. My comments above refer to my experience over the disease duration 10 to 19 years: It would be pointless (I believe) to compare the observations with those who have (say) 4 or 5 years of Parkinson's" - perhaps not surprisingly, these days I only remember dreaming on nights when I have used sinemet On the subject of sleep benefit per se I am once more in agreement with Brian (Brian - this must be some sort of record <grin>) in believing that the experience is "for real" and not due to some putative residue of the previous days meds. In my own case I experience a strange combination of "off" and "on" symptoms. On first waking I am decidedly "off". I lie in bed like a log of wood, unable to move, so heavy that I seem to press downward into the mattress. As my mind focuses on the day, I find that I gain some control of my legs and, to a lesser degree, my arms and hands. I use my legs to inch me towards, and finally over, the edge of the bed and then, grabbing the turning bar fitted to my side of the bed haul myself into an upright position sitting on the edge of the bed. Another grunt and groan session and I am standing beside my bed (on bad days I may need to first lower myself to a kneeling position facing the bed). At this point I find I can walk away with something like a normal gait. My legs feel almost light and I can move around reasonably well. My arms and hands however still have the heavy feeling and are close to useless until my medication starts to take affect. For reasons that I too cannot put into words, the control I have over my legs during that period "feels" more like my memory of "normal " control than does the somehow more "brittle" (but still most welcome) control provided by sinemet. I'm far from certain that my experience actually qualifies as sleep benefit but the "off" periods I experience later in the day are distinctly different and affect my whole body equally. Dennis +++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Dennis Greene 48/11 [log in to unmask] http://members.networx.net.au/~dennisg/ +++++++++++++++++++++++++++