Sleep Epilepsy - WatsonsHealth

SLEEP EPILEPSY

For some individuals, sleep is disturbed not by things but by seizures. You can have seizures while you sleep, whatever type of epilepsy you may have. However, with some unique forms of epilepsy, seizures can occur during sleep.

The cells in your brain communicate with your nerves, muscles and other areas of your brain with the use of electrical signals. Sometimes, these signals are disrupted. When that happens, a seizure occurs. If in case you have two or more seizures at 24 hours apart, and they weren’t brought about by medicine, you may have epilepsy.

There are many distinctive forms of epilepsy. If more than 90% of your seizures occur as you sleep, you may have nocturnal seizures or sleep epilepsy.

It’s believed that sleep epilepsy is caused by changes in the brain’s electrical signals while you sleep. Most sleep seizures arise in stage 1 and stage 2 sleep, which are also the stages known for lighter sleep. Sleep seizures may also occur upon waking up from sleeping. Most of the time, sleep seizures occur as partial seizures.

Sleep seizures are associated with various types of epilepsy, such as the following:

  • Juvenile myoclonic
  • Grand mal
  • Benign focal epilepsy
  • Landau-Kleffner syndrome (LKS)
  • Frontal onset seizures

Sleep epilepsy disrupts sleep. They also have effects on attention and performance at work or school. Lack of sleep can be some of the triggers for seizures. Other triggers are stress and fever.

Types

Sleep epilepsy may fall into two types: generalized seizures and partial seizures.

  • Generalized seizures, which occur when there is abnormal electrical activity in the part of the brain known as the cerebral cortex. These include tonic-clonic seizures or grand mal (stiffening of the body, jerking motions) and absence seizures or petit mal (staring, blinking, and twitches of fingers and toes).
  • Partial seizures, also referred to as focal or localized seizures

Diagnosis

Sleep epilepsy may bring about sleep seizures, which may often occur with parasomnia, a group of sleep problems like sleepwalking, teeth grinding, and restless legs syndrome.

Medical professionals will evaluate a lot of causes to assess which form of sleep epilepsy you may have including:

  • The type of seizures that you are experiencing
  • The age when you started having the seizures
  • Family history of epilepsy
  • Different medical conditions you might have

To diagnose epilepsy, medical professionals may use the following tests:

Medications/Treatment

Should you have sleep epilepsy, take exact precautions to safeguard yourself. Remove dangerous objects from your bed. Place a mat or a mattress below the bed to keep you safe when you fall off the bed.

Do not sleep on your belly and limit the number of pillows in your bed. There should be another person in the room with you. You could also use a seizure detection device to sound an alarm if a seizure occurs.

Medication is the first-line treatment for sleep epilepsy. Your doctor will help you in finding the treatment that works well for you or your child.

 

 

Related Articles

TETRALOGY OF FALLOT

Overview and FactsTypes and SymptomsDiagnosis & MedicationsOverview and Facts Tetralogy of Fallot is a congenital heart defect that affects the [...]

TRICHINOSIS

Overview and FactsTypes and SymptomsDiagnosis & MedicationsOverview and Facts Trichinosis, also known as trichinellosis, is a parasitic infection caused by [...]

TRIGEMINAL NEURALGIA

Overview and FactsTypes and SymptomsDiagnosis & MedicationsOverview and Facts Trigeminal neuralgia is a neurological condition characterized by severe facial pain. [...]