Neuromodulation of Sleep Architecture by STN-DBS in Parkinsonian Patients

Sleep disorder is one of the most burdensome non-motor symptoms in Parkinsonian patients. Typical manifestations include RBD, decreased sleep efficiency, decreased slow wave sleep, daytime sleepiness, increased sleep latency and wakefulness during sleep. Subthalamic nucleus (STN) deep brain stimulation (DBS) has been reported to improve sleep dysfunction in several studies, mostly due to its improvement in motor dysfunction. However, there are limited research about specific STN-DBS stimulation pattern for sleep architecture regulation, and whether suboptimal parameter combinations for motor has potential benefits for sleep improvement has not been studied. Here we use different parameter combination in STN-DBS, especially by changing stimulation contact and frequency, to explore the specific stimulation pattern for normalizing sleep architecture and increasing slow wave sleep.