How much sleep?

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Lack of sleep can absolutely be a trigger for some. Some folks need more, some are fine with less. Listen to your body. Do you keep a journal?

I've always heard that 8 hours is how much sleep we should be getting as adults, maybe use that as a baseline?

Do you remember if you've had seizures during times of being sleep deprived?

I have epilepsy and sleep apnea, lucky me. If I was able to I could easily sleep 10 hours straight! I survive okay with less but I'm sluggish and wish I'd gone to bed earlier..:p
 
Fatigue is a trigger for me so I try to make sure I dont get overtired.

Most nights I go to bed between 10pm - 11pm, when I have to go to work I am up at 6am. I am a restless sleeper sometimes but on a good night I can get roughly 7 hours sleep and be fine during the day but start getting tired by the afternoon.

When I wasn't working for a couple of months I would sometimes have a nap during the day but that was more out of boredom as I wasn't active. I do try to avoid sleeping during the day if I can because then I cant always sleep at night.
 
I also have sleep apnea and epilepsy, both run in my family. But sleep deprivation is definitely a trigger for me too. It's tough, cause when I'm tired I'm more likely to have a seizure, but also if I nap, I have a rough time falling asleep, it's a horrible cycle.
 
Sleep is something very important to us all a good 8 hours is what I have always been told and I think they are right. Going without or having little sleep is something which is likely to result in a seizure but in saying that it is not always that easy getting enough sleep at times.
 
Hi finalpoet,

Lack of sleep and stress are the 2 main things that trigger seizures for me. If I don't get at least 8 hrs. or more of sleep I can count on having a seizure the next day. One thing that really helps me a lot is the medical marijuana it calms me down and relaxes me a lot. I wish you the best of luck and May God Bless You!

Sue
 
Sleep has been a trigger for me in the past, but even though I know I need more sleep, I find it hard to get a full eight hours. I try to go to bed between 10:30 and 11, but often it ends up being between 11 and 11:30. When I have to be at work at 8, I get up at 6. My Fitbit shows that I average between 6 and 7 hours a night. Thankfully my meds are working, because I know if they weren't, I would have problems.

I wish I could sleep more, but even when I don't have to be at work at 8, it seems my internal alarm clock (and if not that, my cat) is set to wake me up around that time. And I find it almost impossible to nap during the day when I've tried, except when I've been sick.
 
As much as anything, it's the quality of the sleep we get that can make a huge difference. Apnea is one of those things that can mess with sleep (and there's a strong correlating with epilepsy), so it's worth getting that diagnosed and treated if possible.

I'm lucky in that I work at home and am self-employed so I can "sleep in" if my brain and body need it. Generally, I seem to get about 8 hours.
 
Sleep doesn't affect me. I sleep 6-6.5 hours/night no mater how tired I am. I have noticed that when I am extremely tired, I fall into a very deep sleep, but I'll still get up within 6.5 hours.
 
txtiger said:
Sleep has been a trigger for me in the past, but even though I know I need more sleep, I find it hard to get a full eight hours. I try to go to bed between 10:30 and 11, but often it ends up being between 11 and 11:30. When I have to be at work at 8, I get up at 6. My Fitbit shows that I average between 6 and 7 hours a night. Thankfully my meds are working, because I know if they weren't, I would have problems.

I wish I could sleep more, but even when I don't have to be at work at 8, it seems my internal alarm clock (and if not that, my cat) is set to wake me up around that time. And I find it almost impossible to nap during the day when I've tried, except when I've been sick.
Click to expand...

We'll, I post this then...you guessed it, a breakthrough. Last Friday evening I had a simple partial breakthrough. Hadn't had an aura in 5 months, and no simple partial in at least 8. It was weird, I was half an hour late on my meds and just thinking I needed to take them when I felt that familiar tingling in my foot. Usually being off by an hour or two doesn't make a difference for me, but then again, I hadn't been sleeping well, averaging less then six hours over that week.

Hopefully this was an isolated incident and not the beginning of a pattern. Made a note and will bring it up with my new doctor when I see her in May. Of course, if I do see a pattern in the meantime, I will call the nurse.
 
I generally aim for 8 hours or more of sleep, I have noticed that if I get less than 6 hours of sleep, the next day may lead to me having a seizure. As strange as it sounds, I can go up to 36 hours without
proper sleep unless I get a headache, which for me is a seizure precursor. However, if I fall into a deep sleep at any point, I need to get at least 6 hours or I'm in trouble.
 
Even though our medications supposedly cause drowsiness, I'm so used to them that there are actually nights when I need sleeping pills to help me sleep!
 
Sabbo said:
Even though our medications supposedly cause drowsiness, I'm so used to them that there are actually nights when I need sleeping pills to help me sleep!
Click to expand...

I find that too, although mine is related to my PTSD so I need to take valium if I have a PTSD attack and can't sleep.
 
I generally sleep around 9-10 hours a night, but my sleep is extremely erratic. My sleep time is also affected strongly by my medications. When I was on Saphris, I could easily sleep 12-15 hours, but that doesn't mean I was "well rested" either...

I've honestly never noticed if sleep triggers seizures for me, but I don't think it does. I *am* getting the impression that stress causes seizures, but not a significant enough trigger to make a serious difference, and besides, one can't avoid stress anyway.
 
Lack of sleep is a very big seizure trigger for me. I usually go to sleep about midnight, get up at 7am to take my meds, fall back asleep, get up for the day around 10:30 then I take a 2 hour nap in the afternoon. If I go too many days without that afternoon nap I almost always have a seizure within the next day or two.

There are times though that I just can't fall asleep and probably don't go to sleep till 3am and the next day I'll go back to my sleep schedule and be ok. Other times I can probably sleep 24 hours a day 3 days strait I'm just so tired.
 
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