I have been complaining to my dr for years but always have been told it is that I am getting older. Now that it is 20 years later, I guess that true.

I have had cramping in the bottom of my left foot for over 20 years, never knew what it was. Now that I am 60, I have the time to investigate this problem more. My left foot now occasionally drags when I walk. I have had a 'yawning problem' for about 10 years; I would get an attack of the yawns and it could continue for as much as 15 minutes, one yawn after another. Of course, the doctors had no idea, and I couldn't find any info on the internet about excessive yawning either.
About 5 years ago I began having trouble sleeping, just waking up every so often and then!! the horrific insomnia and the unbelievable condition I call my 'nightmare nights' began. It is not nightmare dreaming because I don't dream--it is being thrown awake, that is the only way I can explain it; my heart is racing, my blood seems to be thumping in my veins, my whole body seems to be shaking inside. I am not panicked, I can begin to calm in about 15 minutes. And its not like I was sleeping normally before this happened. Most of the time I lie awake hour after hour. Around 3 I would be able to close my eyes in a sort of sleep just to lose it after less than an hour for this 'nightmare night,' Again the doctors have no clue.
I have had almost no trembling-just once or twice in my leg in a small area. But I have had eye twitches which drove me crazy for a while.

Some excessive sweating and that long after menopause; some long sanding constipation and have always had to go right away to urinate; now it's just worse. The insomnia got so bad that I borrowed some clonzapam from my son who has this for anxiety and guess what? I slept all night, I have tried to do with out by taking magnesium, calcium, vit d and I take COQ10 which I think has moderated the low level of energy but didn't help the lack of sleep.

Reading up on this progressive disease scares me. No cure, and the medication is almost as bad as the symptoms of the disease. One of the most informative websites I have looked at talked about the unusual family in Italy that seemed to carry a genetic problem of not being able to sleep. I had recently read the book "The Family that Couldn't Sleep" so I sharpened up and read carefully. It seems that now there is a diagnosis where as in the book no diagnosis was named: it is Parkinson's, a genetic Parkinson's.

I have found another forum in which a person states: yawning is a bad sign and several others say that yawning seemed to active some shaking in one side of the body. This has not happened to me. The primary symptom, shaking, isn't my primary symptom.