On Friday 13 March 2015, Dr. Abdul Qayyum Rana, Director of the Parkinson’s Clinic of Eastern Toronto and Movement disorders Centre educated patients visiting Parkinson’s Clinic of Eastern Toronto about sleep related problems in Parkinson’s disease and Restless legs Syndrome. Patients and caregivers were educated using multilingual educational brochures written by Dr. Rana about sleep disorders in Parkinson’s disease in English, translated in 15 languages including Arabic, Chinese Classic, Chinese Simplified, German, Greek, Urdu, Hindi, Italian, Spanish, Romanian, Bengali, French, Turkish, and Vietnamese. The Restless Legs Syndrome Brochures written by Dr. Rana and translated in 10 different languages including Arabic, Chinese Classic, Chinese Simplified, Spanish, French, Bengali, Hindi, Urdu, Greek, Italian, and Tamil.
Sleep problems and Restless Legs Syndrome are well known non-motor symptoms of Parkinson’s disease. Unfortunately, these disabling non-motor symptoms still remain, under screened, thus underdiagnosed and untreated. These symptoms have much greater negative impact on lives of patients than the motor symptoms of Parkinson’s disease. Treating these symptoms can lead to much better quality of life of those suffering with Parkinson’s. Patients and caregivers were encouraged to provide this educational literature to others if needed. This activity helped in promoting World Sleep Day, and also in spreading the message of Restful sleep, easy breathing, healthy body.