recognizing sleep seizures

[petero]

I'm relatively new to interpreting my epilepsy.
every so often I'll wake up feeling like I've been contorted, arm numb from dangling off the bed or sleeping on it, bad nauseating migraine, it might affect my vision some, very bright, blurry...
I'm like that now really, although it's been worse

I also may have allergies? this is Texas- but the back of my neck/skull is in that vise-grip sort of pain, my spine feels like somebody wrung it out with their hands, and I'm nauseous - I could understand sinus headache=allergies, but all of my symptoms together doesn't sound like allergies

I didn't eat enough yesterday so that could account for part of the nausea thing- but I don't eat well quite often and this waking up thing is extraordinary, not typical definitely

I've never woken up with a bitten tongue, but I've never done that during my TC seizures either

my body is tired but not the same as after my tonic-clonic

I was diagnosed in 2008 and have been stilltrying to figure out what to attribute to this
...and no it's not a hangover, I quit drinking 8 years ago-recovering alcoholic
... although a lot of the characteristics are the same as bad hangovers (or was I just attributing sleep seizures to hangovers? hmm- the BAD hangovers may have been just as prevalent as these things I wake to still...)

 

[Endless]

Hi, Petox!

If I haven't said it already, welcome to the forum!

Night seizures are tough ones to figure out. I have them, too, but they are simple and complex partials. They usually wake me up, and I feel really creepy afterwards. (You know, that seizure-creepy feeling).

I relate to you in that alcohol is a seizure trigger for me. I can't even have 2 oz. of wine, or around 8 hours later I have a seizure. I have no idea why. So I don't drink anymore either.

How often do you have these nighttime events?

Do you keep a seizure journal? It's a good idea, because it helps track possible triggers, seizure type and frequency, and your medications. It helps sort out what causes what.
Here's a link to a thread with pre-formatted seizure journals.
http://www.coping-with-epilepsy.com/forums/f23/seizure-journals-10776/

What you experienced could be a seizure, a sleep disorder, or even a migraine.

Have you had a video EEG or a sleep study? A sleep study can be set up so that it is both a sleep study and an EEG. Since it's on video, too, it's like a 24 hour video EEG. Video EEGs usually last around 5-7 days.

What does your neurologist say about all this? Does he have any guesses?

In the meantime, eat on a regular basis, okay? Low blood sugar is a seizure trigger for a lot of folks in here.

 

[petero]

I'm still not really sure about the frequency
I have been (lately) keeping track of events on a epilepsy.com app
but it's still hard to really tell what's what
thanks for the welcome and sentiment!

 

[Nakamova]

I haven't had night seizures myself (other than one or two tonic-clonics). But they do seem tough to identify or quantify. Here are some other threads on the topic that might be useful:

http://www.coping-with-epilepsy.com/forums/f23/seizures-your-sleep-12713/
http://www.coping-with-epilepsy.com/forums/f23/subject-nocturnal-seizures-1878/
http://www.coping-with-epilepsy.com/forums/f27/nocturnal-seizures-grinding-your-teeth-8097/
http://www.coping-with-epilepsy.com/forums/f23/nocturnal-seizures-12296/
http://www.coping-with-epilepsy.com/forums/f23/sleep-seizures-9439/
http://www.coping-with-epilepsy.com/forums/f23/nocturnal-seizures-11936/
http://www.coping-with-epilepsy.com/forums/f23/nocturnal-seizures-11904/
http://www.coping-with-epilepsy.com/forums/f20/arms-trembling-nocturnal-seizures-11882/

 

[forward2007]

Are they in the middle of the night or right after you go to sleep/right before you get up?

 

[petero]

Are they in the middle of the night or right after you go to sleep/right before you get up?

I have no idea :-/
I've never gotten a sleep study EEG

 

[elizzza811]

I was diagnosed in 2008 and have been stilltrying to figure out what to attribute to this

I get the same wringing vice-grip sensation at the base of my skull, which usually precedes my seizures, sometimes for a week or more prior, but I can usually attribute this somehow to this...

http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/alerts/archive/archive_01Jul2011.html

Click on the link and read this all, but...

http://spaceweather.com/archive.php?view=1&day=09&month=07&year=2011

INCOMING CME: During the early hours of July 9th, a coronal mass ejection (CME) billowed away from new sunspot 1247. A preliminary analysis of data from NASA's twin STEREO-A and -B spacecraft suggests that the flank of the CME could hit Earth's magnetic field sometime on July 11th or 12th.

...On July 7th, the sun produced a series of strong shortwave radio bursts... The roaring-static sound you just heard was a combo Type III-Type V solar radio burst caused by electron beams moving through the sun's outer atmosphere. The source of the electrons could be an newly-emerging sunspot group in the sun's southeastern quadrant, although this is not certain. The active region is crackling with C-class solar flares, and it could produce more radio sounds in the days ahead.

Your post is dated July 9th, so this incoming CME (in the early morning hours) may have been responsible.

 

[petero]

@elizzza

that's pretty weird - but plausible IMHO, and fascinating to consider

obviously not in the sense of being struck by lightning - but these sorts of phenomena may provide nudges this way or that way that electrochemically to something that could be already on the verge of happening

have you ever noticed if you can hear mains hum? that's at about 40Hz or somthing though
electro-solar is much much shorter

now if we can just figure out how to reverse that energy, to store electromagnetic power in our minds, then shoot lightningbolts out of our fingertips right
or to be like Magneto - that'd probably be cooler, than Storm, right?

 

[petero]

I get the same wringing vice-grip sensation at the base of my skull, which usually precedes my seizures, sometimes for a week or more prior, but I can usually attribute this somehow to this...

http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/alerts/archive/archive_01Jul2011.html

Click on the link and read this all, but...

http://spaceweather.com/archive.php?view=1&day=09&month=07&year=2011

INCOMING CME: During the early hours of July 9th, a coronal mass ejection (CME) billowed away from new sunspot 1247. A preliminary analysis of data from NASA's twin STEREO-A and -B spacecraft suggests that the flank of the CME could hit Earth's magnetic field sometime on July 11th or 12th.

...On July 7th, the sun produced a series of strong shortwave radio bursts... The roaring-static sound you just heard was a combo Type III-Type V solar radio burst caused by electron beams moving through the sun's outer atmosphere. The source of the electrons could be an newly-emerging sunspot group in the sun's southeastern quadrant, although this is not certain. The active region is crackling with C-class solar flares, and it could produce more radio sounds in the days ahead.

Your post is dated July 9th, so this incoming CME (in the early morning hours) may have been responsible.

@lizzza again

you've probably heard about birds
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/09/070927-magnetic-birds.html

I'm inclined to believe that traits do not disappear as biodiversity broadens (though we're bipeds we can still opt to crawl, for example) - perhaps types of senses expose themselves neurologically the same as some mutations expose themselves physically, and one of them we call "epilepsy" but maybe it's a conglomeration of, you know, like, data cache that human's aren't quite sure how to process (visually, kinesthetically, equilibrically, etc) so it just spews the cache of data all over the brain's senses, knowing it's all perceptual based, but having no specific organ with which to associate the data