Can head sweating happen during seziures?

[donnajane]

My 16 1/2month old is still confusing everyone with his varying seziures and other issues. He has always had trouble with sweating at times, usually, when sleeping he can sometimes leave a huge wet ring around where his head and upper body have been. It seems to be increasing lately and he is so wet often we have to change what ever clothes he is wearing on his top half as they are soaked.
In the last 6 weeks he has started to be not right when he wakes up, paritcularly after afternoon naps. His eyes don't focus, his arm/wrist twitches, lip twitches, he doesn't remember how to walk at child care they say its like he has regressed and hasn't yet learned to walk. He usually comes good within 15min or so but sometimes it can last over an hour. His nureo is wondering if he is having seizures while he is sleeping and he when he wakes its like he's walking in a fog/cloud.
My main question is can seziures make you perspire to the extent he is? We are trying to organise a camera to see if we catch what is happening. Unfortunately our camera is not good at seeing in low light. I thought if seizures could that might also be a sign that what the Nureo is thinking might be happening actually is.
Off to Genetics Unit at childrens hospital to see metabolic specialist next week, then paed the week after. 6 weeks until MRI. I know the jigsaw puzzle of what is happening with my son is slowly comming together piece by piece but I think there are still a few pieces missing yet!
Donnajane

 

[Nakamova]

I apologize if I've asked this before, but has he been tested for thyroid issues? Thyrotoxicosis could be causing the excessive sweating. It can cause developmental delays, and sometimes isaccompanied by hypercalcemia which can cause seizures. It's pretty rare in infants, and probably not an issue for your guy, but worth ruling out. Diabetes can also cause excessive sweating, but I assume your guy has been checked out for that.

In some folks, sweating is a sign of a temporal lobe seizure -- the autonomic nervous system gets fired up, and you can have things like rapid heart rate and goosebumps in addition to the sweating. But that's more likely to happen when the person is awake rather than asleep.

 

[donnajane]

Hi, Thanks for the reply. They have checked out both Thyroid and Sugar altthough the Paed said she might look into sugar more as she didn't tell us he was going to do a sugar test and he had eaten a bit close to it.
Metabolic unit will also look into a lot of these issues I hope.
I just wondered as he seems to be having more of these really sweaty peiods when sleeping it use to be only one evey 2 or 3 weeks and now this week we are up to three days in a row each followed but shudders and strange behaviour, like comming back on line when waking up.
Thanks again.

 

[valeriedl]

About a year ago I started sweating like crazy at night. I usued to beable to sleep with flanel pj's (in the winter) on and heavy blankets on me, summer and winter, with no problems. Now I'll sleep with a sheet on me and wake myself up because the bed is soaked. I used to sleep in a t-shirt but I can't any more because I'll wake up with it covered in sweat. I've noticed that it's usually around 2 hours after I fall asleep when I wake up all wet.

I asked my neuro about this on a visit, around 6 months ago, but he didn't seem to be too concerned about it. I haven't had any med changes either when this started happening.

I sleep alone so I don't know if I'm doing anything in my sleep, jerking or that sort of thing.

I didn't think I had seizures in my sleep but a little over a week ago I did have one when I was alseep on the couch taking a nap. Really the only reason I knew that I had one was because I peed myself. I've never done that before, it was the first time, hopefully the last too.

 

[donnajane]

Thankyou so much for the post. My son always had had bad sweat episodes off and on overnight. But I noticed lately he has had them every day up to day 4 in a row and after each he has been like in a "post seizure cloud" when he wakes and it has taken up to 20minutes for his brain to come back "on line" he awake but can not function properly. My gut is telling me there is a link but I might be wrong. He is not on any meds as he is so young and Nureo wants his condition to present itself more, as its all over the place with different types of seizures etc at the moment, before he considers putting him on meds.
Thanks again,

 

[Bernard]

Sweating can also be symptomatic of cardio or breathing (lack of oxygen in the blood) issues. Night sweats could be indicative of sleep apnea (or night time seizure) problems:

http://www.coping-with-epilepsy.com/forums/f23/night-sweats-sleep-apnea-799/

You might inquire with his doctor about having a sleep study done to check for sleep apnea and/or night seizure activity.

 

[donnajane]

Thanks for the info. Will definetly look into it. I manged to video some of his afternoon nap today and on it he has several not sure what they are spasms/events? He suddenly arches back and does a short weird cry. A couple where a little stronger as they woke him up but he resttled a minute later. Not sure if this has been causing his sweating? Sending a couple of examples in our weekly email to his Nureo along with an example of how he often struggles to walk when he wakes up. He is into day 5 of a routine with his events so hopefully this routine will help with his diagnosis.
Donnajane.