Absence seizures overnight?

[donnajane]

Is it possible to have absence seizures overnight?
My 19months sleep is so broken and we have a night vision camera on his now with motion detect. He is a very active sleeper, if you can actually call it sleep. He is always stretching/arching back, sometimes hands/arms will shake briefly, he has his strange spasms. What I have noticed more though is when he is awake overnight it is as though he has an absence seizure he will be wide awake, rolling around playing etc then suddenly he will stop moving, eyes stay wide open and go vacant, every now and then you get a small tiwtch of a finger, he might blink 3 or 4 times within that time, usualy a couple of minutes then he suddenly will be back. He is often lying on his side and if his arm is up in the air when this happens it gradually comes down to near his body, doesn't fall. He has absence seziures in the day.
Seeing his Nureologist on Thursday so will show him the footage.
Donnajane,

 

[Nakamova]

Yes, it's possible. Whenever someone is awake (even in the middle of the night), it's possible for them to have an absence seizure. I the neuro is helpful on Thursday. I know this has been a long journey for you.

 

[Nakamova]

Has his current medication helped to control the seizures at all?

If not, you might want to ask about trying ACTH or Vigabatrin -- they're considered the meds most successful in treating infantile spasms.

 

[donnajane]

Thank you for the response. I showed both his paed and his Nureo the footage of what he does overnight. Both agreed it appears to be a seizure and the other examples appear to other forms of events, some partial seizures. he is currently taking Tegretol 2.5ml am and 7.5ml pm. The Nureo said this really should be have improved his sleep but after watching the footage he said he is still doing some very weird things and will discuss it with his colleagues as things just don't seem to be adding up. He described his behaviour in his appointment as almost "manic", in the report he sent us out tonight with notes on the appointment. He also gave us a copy of the MRI results and said although he had told us it was a bit of an inflamation the report had other things which if we goggled them we would see the word tumor which he said it could be but they are a bit different to a tumour. He said the reason he had had so many EEG's which clear, other than the last one, was his issues where deep in his brain putamen.
His paed was even more convinced today it is a metabolic issue. Good news though is she felt his language skills were quite advanced today but she said on bad days they are quite low.
Next is the metabolic appointment on 28th August to see what the tests they did showed. His is booked in for another MRI in Jan and has to have at least 4 more MRI's without any change in what they found, (One at 2 (jan), One at 3, One at 5 and then One at 10) If there is a change he will need them regularly while they try to work out the next step.
The search for answers continues! At least now I know I am not just being paranoid over what he does at night.

 

[KarenB]

Has your neurologist suggested a sleep study or a 48 hour EEG? This might reveal if the staring behavior (not to mention the arching back and manic sort of behavior) are seizures.

 

[donnajane]

No sleep study suggested yet. He did have an overnight EEG earlier but that was when he was mainly shuddering. His Nureo has explained that the reason EEG's haven't shown what is happening is that his issues are deep in his brain at this putamen and this is not picked up on an EEG.
He is showing fooatge to other nureo's to get their opinions.