Parkinson disease and sleep: sleep-wake changes in the premotor stage of Parkinson disease; impaired olfaction and other prodromal features.

Parkinson disease (PD) has a premotor stage where neurodegeneration occurs before parkinsonism becomes apparent. Identification of individuals at this stage provides an opportunity to study early disease progression and test disease-modifying interventions. Hyposmia, constipation, depression and hypersomnia are part of this premotor phase and predictive of future development of PD. However, these features are common in the general population, and they are most often the result of causes other than incipient PD. In contrast, most individuals with idiopathic REM sleep behavior disorder (IRBD) eventually develop PD and other synucleinopathies. IRBD individuals with hyposmia, substantia nigra hyperechogenicity, and abnormal striatal dopamine transporter imaging findings have increased short-term risk of developing a synucleinopathy. IRBD is an optimal target to test disease-modifying agents in the PD prodromal phase. Serial dopamine transporter imaging, but not olfactory tests, may serve to monitor the disease process in future disease-modifying trials in IRBD.