How much is really known about seizures during sleep?

[forward2007]

Do they think it's from medication levels dropping or something to do with the different sleep stages or what?

[TeeTees]

Do they think it's from medication levels dropping or something to do with the different sleep stages or what?

I'm not sure, but when I told my Doc about my occurring sleep seizures, he prescribed my Clobazam (aka. Frisium) which apparently stays in the system for approx 8 hours.

Personally I think it's down to how 'active' your mind is when you go to sleep, and therefore how 'easy' you can drop off for a good night's sleep. I say that because if I go to bed with something on my mind and can't get off to sleep, I tend to find that 'POW' - there's a seizure !

[Bee91]

I also think it has something to do with the stages of sleep and your brain activity...

Does anyone notice when they have a lot of seizures during the night they seem to have a seizure filled day? That's what happens in my case. I usually end up having to come home early from school.

[brain]

Mine are a result of a birth defect / genetic.

It doesn't matter if I am on meds or off meds, it
will show up on EEG or video EEG. Stage II, III and
sometimes even into Stage IV going into sleep;
and there's been recordings of coming out of
sleep as well. Had it all in my life.

Doctors have managed to minimize the seizures
during my awake hours, but are having difficulties
controlling it when I'm asleep. They've been at it
for years, trying to control that nighttime episodes.

[RobinN]

Have sleep disorders been ruled out?

ANNOUNCER: But probably the biggest cause of sleep-related seizures are undiagnosed sleep disorders.

CARL BAZIL, MD, PhD: Sleep disorders can have an impact not only on sleep-related epilepsy, but on epilepsy in general, because anything that causes a stress to the body can increase seizures.

We know that there are a lot of people out there who have undiagnosed sleep disorders. That can really be contributing to epilepsy and making it difficult or impossible to treat. So once the sleep disorder is diagnosed and treated, that's the only time the seizures can come under control.

ANNOUNCER: Over-the-counter and prescription sleep aids taken for sleep disorders can also potentially disrupt antiseizure medications, although most are safe and can be taken with anticonvulsants.

CARL BAZIL, MD, PhD: The one type of medication that you'd worry about in a person with epilepsy is benzodiazepines, like Valium, which is not used so much for sleep, but occasionally it is. Medications like Restoril; these can cause dependence over time, if they're used frequently. And when the patient stops them, the withdrawal phenomenon from that dependence can actually make seizures worse.

ANNOUNCER: With the increased focus on seizure activity during sleep, physicians and patients are better able to control seizures in general and improve a patient's quality of life.

CARL BAZIL, MD, PhD: Sleep-related epilepsy actually has a better prognosis than epilepsy in general. Most people with sleep-related epilepsy can become completely controlled. So if they're still having seizures on medication, reevaluation may be warranted to find out if they need additional medication, if they have a sleep disorder that's making their seizure worse. If those are found, then they have a very good chance of having complete control of their epilepsy.

http://www.healthology.com/epilepsy/video1968.htm

Presented here at the first North American Regional Epilepsy Congress, the randomized, controlled trial showed that approximately one third of subjects who received continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) treatment had a 50% or greater reduction in seizure frequency, compared with only 15% of subjects who improved on CPAP placebo.

"These results are very promising and very exciting, because even though our study wasn't powered to find a statistically significant effect, we did observe a significant trend toward improvement in seizure frequency among patients who received CPAP — a result that rivals that of an antiepileptic drug," principal investigator Beth Ann Malow, MD, from Vanderbilt University, in Nashville, Tennessee, told Medscape.

http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/548724