Odd events during sleep

[chmmr]

Glad he explained a little more to you. For what it's worth, my daughter that has epilepsy also has been diagnosed with sleep myoclonus (since she was a tiny infant). None of my other children twitch or jerk as much during sleep as i have seen her do, so i'm confident that it is "different' than my other kids but she also tends to have complex partials (although in the temporal lobe) so a nocturnal seizure that manifests as a myoclonic jerk i guess is far less likely than sleep myoclonus is.

Interestingly enough i was told, and read, that even some neuros have trouble differentiating between a true seizure and sleep myoclonus because sleep myoclonus can look so much like a true seizure.

 

[Kgartner]

Kgartner,
One thing to look into if/when she has a overnight video EEG, be sure they check to see if she is awake or asleep when the larger movements are happening. That was another thing that was odd about my case and was a reason my neurologist decided it was epilepsy related. When these things would happen, my EEG read as if I was awake. I had no recollection of what I was doing.

Thank you for the advice! If we end up going down that path I will definitely make sure we look for that.

Glad he explained a little more to you. For what it's worth, my daughter that has epilepsy also has been diagnosed with sleep myoclonus (since she was a tiny infant). None of my other children twitch or jerk as much during sleep as i have seen her do, so i'm confident that it is "different' than my other kids but she also tends to have complex partials (although in the temporal lobe) so a nocturnal seizure that manifests as a myoclonic jerk i guess is far less likely than sleep myoclonus is.

Interestingly enough i was told, and read, that even some neuros have trouble differentiating between a true seizure and sleep myoclonus because sleep myoclonus can look so much like a true seizure.

Thanks for sharing your experience. The thing I find odd is not simply that she is twitching so much during sleep - it's that this was not something that she did until after the epilepsy diagnosis! She has struggled with insomnia for years, and I would frequently sit with her or lie down with her to help her sleep. While she struggled to fall asleep, once she fell asleep she always slept very soundly, and didn't move much at all. No sleep jerks, none of this weird sitting up or jerking her head. That's what makes me think that this is somehow connected to her epilepsy or to her AED - not necessarily seizure activity, but related in some way. But I haven't been able to find out much information about that.