How to Deal With Sleep Attack | American Parkinson Disease Association, Washington Chapter

Coping Strategies:
How to deal with sleep attack, a side effect from the dopamine agonists

Dopamine agonists such as pramipexole (Mirapex), ropinirole (Requip), bromocriptine (Parlodel), and pergolide (Permax) may cause severe somnolence or sleep attacks according to the recent case reports and studies. Further more, some studies suggest that the risk of attacks does not change if you were taking low or high doses of the drugs and all types of dopamine drugs are associated with sleep attacks.

The definition for sleep attack is the sudden episode of falling asleep without warning and without being drowsy. For people who are taking dopamine agonists, coping strategies would be:

Find someone else to drive for you. Remember, you may not feel drowsy before the sleep attack; therefore, you will not have the opportunity to pullover and stop driving.
Do not engage in other activities where impaired alertness could put you or others at risk of serious injury.
Communication between family members is very important. The family's routine acceptance of the attack can do much to reduce embarrassment when attacks occur in public.
Be positive! More and more studies are dealing with this aspect to improve quality of life for the Parkinson's disease patients. We will keep you posted regarding the new findings and new coping strategies.