dreams, migraine day = sleep seizure?

[petero]

I wonder if dreams are common among sleep seizures?
Dream/lucid dreaming?
during, before, after?

I had a very bizarre and frustrating, constraining, tiring, movement-oriented dream last night, that eventually became lucid from which I woke myself up pretty much... and then all day so far very bad migraines.

I live and sleep alone so there's not much way for me to tell if I have seleep seizures.

I've looked up a few things and kept tabs on them to see if there might be a correlation: weather, allergies, diet, solar/geomagnetic.. and nothing leaps out except for some junk food late last night, out of my usual eating pattern, and a sunspot, solar wind... some GOES X-ray peaks... oh and some add'l stress regarding an event tonight, but not that big of a deal

but my main question is if there is common occurence with dreams and sleep seizures
is this even possible in the brain wave patterns?

cmon ibuprofen - do your stuff - and I need some good coffee

 

[Nakamova]

Dreamless sleep takes place during delta (slowest) brainwave frequencies. Active dreaming starts to occur (usually in a 90-minute cycles) as the delta waves increase to the frequency of theta brainwaves. Theta waves are associated with daydreaming, the moments between sleep and waking, and epilepsy (people with epilepsy often generate bursts of excess theta).

So certainly your more active dreams share something with seizure states and, in the case of nocturnal seizures, may overlap.

 

[petero]

I thought so. It's one of "those" mornings, you know.
Now I just need to travel back in time to schedule an appointment for a sleepover EEG at the neuro clinic.

 

[Endless]

Nocturnal? It's entirely possible to have both epilepsy and a sleep disorder.

First of all, do we know the nocturnals are seizures? Has one been caught on an EEG? Because if not, some other things need to be ruled out first. (sometimes epilepsy/seizures is a diagnosis of exclusion)

Certain types of dreams can be sleep disorders. Sleep disorders can look like seizures, but aren't. Some things, like hypnic jerks or periodic limb movement disorder, look exactly like a myoclonic seizure.
http://www.sleepdisordersguide.com/plmd.html
http://www.sleepdisordersguide.com/topics/hypnic-jerk.html

Sleep apnea can cause seizures, and seizures can cause sleep apnea. Sleep apnea can cause some pretty strange dreams while you are asleep, headaches, memories of the dream when you wake up. It can also cause anxiety and/or depression, memory loss, concentration problems, etc.

Have you had a sleep study?

Hypnopompic dreams happen upon waking, nighttime or morning, and can include anything from complex hallucinations to talking strangely, emotions, memory issues, and confusion. It looks and feels a lot like a temporal lobe seizure.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypnopompic

Seizures are most likely to happen at night when people transition between stages of sleep (transition between brain wave types). That's one of the reasons why they do sleep deprived EEGs, so you'll drop off to sleep fast and stay there. The other reason is that sleep deprivation is a seizure trigger for some people.

See a sleep doctor. If he/she doesn't think it's a sleep disorder, well, then it's probably seizures. Talk it over with your neurologist, too. The fact you are having dreams first is a major clue. He'll want you to have a sleep study.

 

[petero]

Nocturnal? It's entirely possible to have both epilepsy and a sleep disorder.

First of all, do we know the nocturnals are seizures? Has one been caught on an EEG? Because if not, some other things need to be ruled out first. (sometimes epilepsy/seizures is a diagnosis of exclusion).

I hadn't thought of that, epilepsy and sleep disorder. I have never had a seizure-positive EEG. No sleep study either.
But there is a lot of poignant and thought-provoking information there regarding the sleep disorders. Thanks!

 

[Endless]

I forgot to ask, what seizure meds are you on? Some are notorious for causing vivid and/or bizzare dreams. When I was first on Lamictal it was especially bad. Now, I still think that vivid dreams I dream really happened. Inconvenient, but it doesn't upset me like it used to.

 

[petero]

I forgot to ask, what seizure meds are you on? Some are notorious for causing vivid and/or bizzare dreams. When I was first on Lamictal it was especially bad. Now, I still think that vivid dreams I dream really happened. Inconvenient, but it doesn't upset me like it used to.

I'm on phenytoin 500mg/day
as long as I've been on it these things have really intensified over the past few months

maybe it is the sunspot cycle!