Seizures in your sleep

[valeriedl]

I don't know if I have these or not, but what are they like. I think I have every other type of seizure though.

Alot of time I'll hear a phone ring when I'm sleeping and it will jolt me awake. I'm dreaming when this happens, but the dream has nothing to do with a phone. I do dream alot however.

[s10sleeper]

I have seizures nocturnally, and many times they will awaken me or occur as I am dozing off. From what I have found, most of them I never remember, the only reason I found out I have them is that I have the Neuropace RNS implant in my brain that works just like an eeg and it has caught alot of them. Sometimes they will be just like I am dreaming that I am having a seizure and others i have no memory. They are actually rather hard to describe but if you have them alot and know what a regular seizure is like then you will realize it eventually, or you may have to have an eeg done in your sleep to know.

[CrunchyFrog]

The majority of my seizures have happened while asleep often just as I'm drifting off. The partials wake me up and the bigger ones I don't know about till I wake up in Hospital. I don't know if I have others while I'm sleeping that I don't know about, I'd like to think I don't anyway.
I don't know if there is a connection to dreaming a lot and seizures? I know my partials that happen while I'm asleep always seem to occur while I'm dreaming...
I think the only way to know if you're having seizures in your sleep you're unaware of would be to have tests done.

[Chel]

I know I've had nocturnal seizures when I wake up sweaty, exhausted, shaking or have bitten inside my mouth (any of the above, summer sweats excluded). I often wake shaking these days, and someone here told me that's as I'm coming out of a seizure.
Hope this helps

[s10sleeper]

I have the same issue occure with biting the inside of my mouth and at times come down with TMJD in my jaw. At first the dentist put me on painkillers for a bit but then said that they could not do that long term and that I needed a mouth guard, but I do not have 500 dollars for that as medicaid does not cover it. Anymore I just have to bear it as I always spit out anykind of mouth guard that I try to wear at night. The weird situations I have though is on nights I have to take ambien to get to sleep, as I have vague memories but when I have seizures that I do remember it is a very weird dream and near impossible to describe. Of course those may be the hallucinations from the side effects of the ambien. If so, I can't understand why anybody would like to take those recreationally. I love the nights when I can sleep without it and sleep well, but those don't happen alot. I think that may be the Keppra that I take as I found some documents showing that in 1 percent of patients that are on Keppra in high doses develop chronic insomnia.

I am never certain exactly how many seizures I have for that reason.

[mspang]

I'm now only having seizures in my sleep and I have know idea what they are like. The only reason I know i've had them is when I wake up my shirt will be taken off and I will have bit my tongue or lips. Ouch!

[RichInLouisville]

I have only had seizures while I sleep. From what I am told, mine happen shortly after falling asleep. My first occurred after a pretty hard blow to the head, I head-butted our steel front door just goofing around and actually dented it a bit. That very night, I woke up with a team of paramedics around me and I was freaking out. My GF had called 911 and they told me I had been in a seizure. I figured then it was from the blow to my head. Didn't have any more seizures until the next time I hit my head hard at work months later (accidental) and again, that night I had another seizure. I had the EEG done and other checks which all showed nothing. It was after a few years and more seizures that I was finally able to afford to see a Neurologist and get put onto Medication. The correct dosing took a while.

I have very vivid dreams sometimes but don't associate any with my seizures. All of my seizures have been Tonic Clonic (or vise versa) where I do the hard breathing out, (yell) all my muscles tighten up to the point where I get a nice hard full body workout in about 5 minutes or so. Most times I have done some damage to my tongue and one time I even whacked my head on a nightstand after rolling out of bed. Eventually the pain from the tongue, or muscles wakes me up but it can be hours before that happens because I am told after the seizure I enter a very deep sleep.

Something very cool about having had a dog in the past was that he was able to detect the onset of a seizure and wake me up before hand. I knew this to be the case but can't really describe why I knew that's what was getting ready to happen. I know that dogs are very aware of seizure activity along with other medical conditions they can detect in people. It's been at least 6 months since my last seizure which I believe was brought on because of a very stressful day followed by driving about 6 hours up to Michigan. The one prior to that was after getting the H1N1 Flu-shot, I got the Flu and had a Seizure all in one night, Yeah! For the most part though, the Keppra XR has been working great. I do get the headaches from it, but I guess it's better than Seizures.

For years prior to my first full blown seizure I was having the Deja-Vu and Hotflashes which I found out from my Neurologist were actually a type of seizure during the day and during the night. I would even feel the Deja-Vu while sleeping, that was really weird to have Deja-Vu dreams. Those have stopped with the Keppra XR.

[huskymom]

I have most of my seizure activity while asleep, although I have started having absent and Deja-vu seizures as well. I am unaware of the nocturnal ones until I wake up and feel so disoriented, sore and dizzy. That will usually last for the entire day. I will occasionally bite my lips and tongue. It makes sleeping with me such an adventure

[elizzza811]

This may be a dumb question, but many nights I'll be watching TV and begin to doze off, and just as I'm beginning to doze off I'll be jolted awake, almost as if the phone rang or the alarm clock went off (but they didn't). Are you saying those could be seizures?

It always freaks me when it happens because nothing specific seems to trigger my being jolted awake...it just occurs suddenly.

And sweats can be a symptom of seizures, too?

Doctors all these years were trying to blame my sweats on menopause...but at the age of 40 or 41? I freaked, and the doctor's response was something like, "Well, I've seen women go into menopause as early as 30"...something ridiculously low. I was checked later, and I wasn't in menopause. These sweats though are atrocious...any change in temperature (or lighting) can trigger a sweat attack, even if the temperature change is only slight, and even if the temperature change is a temperature drop. For instance, sweats can be triggered by stepping out of the shower in the winter-time. Walking into a store with fluorescent lighting can trigger sudden sweats, too.

[epileric]

That does happen to me occasionally but I've never associated it with seizures, especially since I've known others without E who have the same thing happen when on that level of falling asleep (in between worlds)

[Endless]

Jerking or jolting awake during sleep or transitions to and from sleep are called hypnic jerks. It's a normal part of the sleep process. Some sources call it a Myoclonic jerk, but that doesn't mean it's an epilepsy jerk. Some people also experience it as falling.

http://www.discovery.com/area/skinny.../skinnyon.html

If you were having a seizure, you'd remember nothing about it. We typically do remember hypnic jerks. They are annoying, but not harmful.

[Chris515]

Most of my tonic clonic's happen while I'm sleeping, about 90%. But about 90% of my simple partial's happen while awake.

The only simple partial's I have while sleeping generalize into tonic clonic's. blah. Makes me never want to sleep!

[valeriedl]

I was also waking up covered in sweat, this was happening during the winter and spring. I'm supprised that now it's summer and it's about 70 degrees (the same temp we were keeping the house at in the winter) at night I'm not having the problem any more.

[Endless]

Hi, Valerie,

You don't have to answer this, but can I ask your age?

[valeriedl]

I'm 35 Endless and I'm on deop provara birthcontroll so I don't have a peroid. I'm actually able to sleep with some clothes on, shorts and a t-shirt, now where I couldn't sleep with hardly anything on before.

I hope that wasn't too much information.

[Endless]

Valerie, Just the right amount of info. About the sweating, glad it's not a problem any more. Excessive sweating is a side effect of depo-provera.
http://www.drugs.com/sfx/depo-provera-side-effects.html

[s10sleeper]

Endless, that is very interesting info about the hypnic jerks, thank you. I did have a little bit of a question for you though. You were saying that if you have a seizure in your sleep you wouldn't remember it. Are you referring only to certain stages of sleep there? The reason I wonder this is that almost all of my seizures are nocturnal. I do remember quite a few though after I have just drifted to sleep or when I am awoken by a seizure. During these times that I am able to remember, I do upload all of my data from my RNS to neuropace and the doctors, and they have been telling me that I have been capturing seizures during those times. The reason I do wonder about this is if it may be possible to remember during certain stages of sleep but not in the deeper ones.

I do have many times though that I have dreams that I am having a seizure, which is also weird, but I think they may just be dreams and hope that that is all they are so that I have even fewer seizures.

I also have times after taking Ambien to sleep that I will drift off with these weird, almost hallucinations that seem to become seizures, not certain though.

[Endless]

By having one, I meant having either a generalized seizure (i.e. tonic clonic) or a complex partial seizure. You probably wouldn't be remembering those. If you are remmebering generalized siezures, that's very interesting. I'd like to hear more about that. There was a string in here somewhere talking about the possibility of a dream-like state being a state of altered consciousness. Can't find it now, though.

A simple partial you might remember. Sometimes those wake me up. It makes me wonder how many I have in my sleep and don't know it.

[s10sleeper]

Although it seems a bit weird, I have always had partial memories of my complex partial seizures. It is very odd as I can remember tensing up and drooling. Along with this I remember if i was saying something during it, or at least trying, but never remember what it was unless someone tells me, then I will remember it.

I have always had some type of memory of all of my seizures when I was awake, not sure how that can be as I have also read that complex partial seizure don't really have a memory

[elizzza811]

I don't remember my sleep seizures, but I know I wake up majorly confused and disoriented when they do occur. I can usually bet on having more seizures, too, once I get up.