title: Key sleep neurologic disorders: Narcolepsy, restless legs syndrome/Willis-Ekbom disease, and REM sleep behavior disorder.
abstract: Sleep disorders are frequent comorbidities in neurologic patients. This review focuses on clinical aspects and prognosis of 3 neurologic sleep disorders: narcolepsy, restless legs syndrome/Willis-Ekbom disease (RLS/WED), and REM sleep behavior disorder (RBD). Narcolepsy causes pervasive, enduring excessive daytime sleepiness, adversely affecting patients' daily functioning. RLS/WED is characterized by an uncomfortable urge to move the legs before sleep, often evolving toward augmentation and resulting in daylong bothersome symptoms. RBD causes potentially injurious dream enactment behaviors that often signify future evolution of overt synucleinopathy neurodegeneration in as many as 81% of patients. Timely recognition, referral for polysomnography, and longitudinal follow-up of narcolepsy, RLS/WED, and RBD patients are imperatives for neurologists in providing quality comprehensive patient care.
authors.affiliation: Section of Sleep Neurology, Center for Sleep Medicine, Departments of Medicine and Neurology, Mayo Clinic and Foundation, Rochester, MN.
authors.forename: Erik K
authors.initials: EK
authors.lastname: St Louis