Epileptic Seizures Can Cause Sleep Disturbances!

Some people with epilepsy get seizures when they are awake, some get while asleep and some of them have mixture of both.

Forty different types of seizures are present and some of them occur in certain sleep stages.

Therefore, it is important to discuss with your doctor and give complete information as possible.

Take your partner along with you to the doctor so that they can also explain about the symptoms of seizures and when they occur.

Partners can observe the seizures rather than you and their information can help to prescribe correct medications and treatment.

Seizures and stages of sleep:

In NREM sleep, your breathing will be regular and there will be only little body movement. This usually accounts for 75 percent of your sleeping time. During NREM sleep, generalized seizures are more likely to occur.

In REM sleep, there will be eye movement, frequent twitching of face, arms and legs, and increased and irregular breathing. REM sleep can last from few minutes to half an hour. Partial seizures are more likely to occur in REM sleep.

Different sleep disorders are confused with sleep seizures. These disorders include sleep apnea, sleep terrors, sleep walking [Sleep Walking Treatment], restless leg syndrome, narcolepsy and bed wetting. Therefore, it is important to diagnose the condition correctly to give proper treatment.

Epilepsies that are related to sleep:

One of the epilepsies that is related to sleep is “awakening grand mal epilepsy”. If you have this type of epilepsy, you have tonic-clonic seizures. These types of seizures occur just before or after you wake up.

The seizures happen mostly in the morning, but they can also happen when you wake up from a nap. Using seizure medications can control these types of seizures.

Juvenile myoclonic epilepsy (JME) begins in the teen years and happens upon awakening. If you have this type of seizures, you can experience rapid and isolated jerks of muscles called myoclonus. If you have JME, you can also have grand mal seizures.

Frontal lobe seizures are a type of partial epilepsy that begins in the frontal lobe, which is a part of the brain behind the forehead. These types of seizures happen during sleep. Seizure medications work better in controlling them if they occur during sleep only.

How seizures can be prevented?

Epileptic seizures can be treated with anti-epileptic drugs, which help in preventing seizures by controlling the excitability in the brain. You should take anti-epileptic drugs as prescribed by the doctor because missing doses can trigger seizures in some people.

The drugs should be taken throughout the day at regular intervals to make sure that there is a steady supply in your blood stream.

Some people get increased seizures in second half due to the reduced drug levels in your blood stream. If you had seizures during second half, talk to your doctor so that he/she can adjust your medications.