possible nocturnal seizures?

[scaredycat]

Hello again, it's me, the question asker!

Ok so wondering if I possibly have some sort of nocturnal seizure. I often wake up in the morning feeling like I could use a million hours more sleep. My boyfriend moved in about two months ago and noticed that every few nights I sit up in bed and have non-understandable conversations. My boyfriend initially tried to get me to go back to sleep before it was over, but now he just leaves it to run it's course and keeps an eye on me in case I start doing anything silly. I am totally unaware of them until my bf tells me about them the next day.

Thanking you all in advance for any advice or experience.

 

[huskymom]

When I have a nocturnal seizure I wake up the same way. Everything is extremely sore and I am unable to focus most of the day. It takes all my energy to make it to the couch! My husband used to tell me all about them, but he has gotten used to it and sleeps through them! Kind of like putting a quarter in the box by the bed for the vibration to lull you to sleep

 

[hdufort]

It’s difficult to establish a diffential diagnosis for parasomnias vs epilepsy. You could have confused awakenings, somniloquy, "sleepwalking", Rapid eye movement sleep behaviour disorder (RBD), etc. In terms of epilepsy this could be a complex partial seizure, temporal lobe seizure, or even a rolandic seizure.

Typically, a partial seizure during sleep will be very short, from 30 seconds to 2 minutes. But parasomnia events such as confused awakenings will last much longer, sometimes 20-30 minutes, and will have a tendency of repeating a few times during the night (usually with sleep cycle transitions, for instance at the end of a REM phase).

Until you get an appointment for a PSG+EEG test, you’ll have to gather evidence by yourself. Your boyfriend could try to film you with a night camera when this happens. Afterwards, look for some clues such as twitching on one side of the face, lip smacking and repetitive hand or head movements for instance. Also it’s important to record the duration of events.

As is the case with both parasomnias and nocturnal partial seizures, some events are silent (they won’t wake up your boyfriend) but you’re still being disrupted in your sleep. A "quiet" night is not always so quiet.

During these sleep disturbances, your boyfriend should not try to wake you up or hold you. It wouldn’t help. He should just let the seizure/parasomnia event unravel, and make sure you don’t fall down from the bed or smash the bedside lamp.

We learned a lot about parasomnias and epilepsy over the last few years, while our son was going through a painfully slow diagnosis process.

If you have daytime seizures and are already under medical supervision, you’ll probably get the fast track for your night time events.

If it’s not epilepsy-related (i.e. if it’s a parasomnia), taking slow-release melatonin before going to bed is sometimes a good over-the-counter solution.