Sleep Seizures

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valeriedl

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What do seizures in your sleep feel like?

I'm not sure if I may have started having them or not.
 
Good question! i also may have started having those. I am worried. How can someone know?
 
Kinda been wondering the same thing myself. Sometimes I wake up after an adequate # of hrs of sleep and feel like a mack truck has run over me. So, was I just in deep sleep before waking and kinda got my sleep cycles a bit off, or was it/is it post ictal fatigue??
 
I actually have seizures every night. Sometimes I am up for hours because it doesn't stop :( But what happens to me is I get auras before my seizures, so that will wake me up and then I will have a partial seizure. The auras usually wake me up. But if not, the seizure ends up waking me up. So, I am always conscious and know when I am having one.

Hugs,
Janellie :)
 
Thanks, Janellie. I'm so new at having seizures (3 months), I really am just trying to get caught up to speed with what most of you have been knowing for many years. Curious about what kind of auras you have in your sleep and what your sleeping sps are like. Would you be willing to share that with me/us?
 
Auras and Muscle Pain.

I think you have to identify & compare the type of auras you have during the day and dreams you have during seizure free nights.

Some mornings I wake with muscle pains and instead of waking from a weird or lucid dream, I feel like I'm waking up from a night of sleep "FULL" of auras.
 
Thanks, Juju. When I think of auras I think of cerebral sensory sensations/experiences, e.g. visual, olfactory, taste. Maybe I'm being too narrow in my thinking about auras. What I have experienced pre-sps is nausea, headache, and free-floating anxiety. I have never been awakened by these symptoms. I have never had t-c seizures so sore muscles aren't a part of my 'afterwards'. My sps are characterized by a sense of cognitive fuzziness/fog and a disconnect between my thinking and motor processes which is disconcerting when I'm on my bike (bicycle, not motor bike). Afterwards I'm super-low energy, quite fatigued, flat affect, and often for several hours my speech is quite monotoned. So, how my sps have manifested don't wake me up, but some of the post ictal symptoms I mentioned have shown up in the mornings. They are, however, non-specific enough that they could be attributed to other circumstances, e.g. overtraining on my bike.
 
I had ones I was conscious for every night when I was younger, sometimes over and over again. Now, those are rare.

It is harder to know, if I am not conscious-- but much less traumatic. The only way I know is if I suddenly come-to in the middle of night and feel like I lost time-- instead of had been asleep-- and often in that come-to moment I have a sensation of chill/tremor in my core and extreme tension in the rest of my body that is gone in a flash. Most times I have a horrific headache. Sometimes I've bitten the inside of my mouth and/or feel like I've been run over. Rarely, I've injured a joint and don't know how.
 
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It depends on what kind of seizure you have had in your sleep. I have had simple-partials, complex-partials, and T/C in my sleep. I don't know if I can claim them as "during my sleep", though. On the EEG, my brain would show as I'm awake, but I would not remember it and I would go straight back into a sleep cycle.

After a T/C seizure, all my muscles would be soar, and I would wake up confused and disorientated. After having simple-partials or complex-partials, I would wake up with soar muscles due to the fact that I was moving a lot. I would do situps and freeze in odd positions. I got pretty used to this and it became completely normal. This is all controlled now.
 
Sleeping with someone is really helpful for knowing when you have had tonic clonics in your sleep.

Failing that you can get pads that measure sleep activity, useful for people who live alone. I don't know for the rest of the world but usually can be acquired from the local council in Kent, it's from a company called lifeline they can ring you if they detect anything and contact an emergency contact / Services if they don't get a response.

Q
 
I have only nocturnal seizures. What I define as the seizure (the motor portion) lasts 10 - 30 seconds, but they can cluster; ie. I get 2 - 4 in a period of about 5 min or through the night. When they cluster with lots of time between the seizures I fall asleep after each one and later waken to another one occurring.
Sometimes intense tingling and/or a headache will wake me first and then the seizure occurs seconds later, and other times I waken very briefly and only have vague awareness that I am having a seizure.
A mild motor seizure generally does not affect me the next day, unless I have a cluster of them. A stronger seizure (affecting more of my body), either singly or as part of a cluster, leave me wiped, tingly, headache and "out of tune" the next day.
 
I know I have seizures in my sleep my bf has told me they wake him although when we sleep separately (which us iften since we live at his dads and don't have a bed) he doesn't know unless he is up playing games. They are always t/cs, but I wonder could the feeling of falling or the whole couch spinning in a circle be an aura? The times I get these, which isn't all that much anymore, I usually get told I was seizing in bed.

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Curious about what kind of auras you have in your sleep and what your sleeping sps are like.QUOTE]

bentwanderer,

My auras feel like a tingly sensation between my knees and inner thighs. Sometimes these auras get real intense and it feels like a volt of electricity (these are slightly painful). After this aura, a seizure usually, but not always follows. The auras that I have isn't something I can smell or taste...it feels physical. I would not consider this physical aura sensation that I have an actual seizure because it feels more like a warning of what is about to happen. I guess I should be thankful for my auras (even if they may be a little painful) just because I will know when I am about to have a seizure. Once the aura occurs I will sometimes have a seizure. Which usually feels like volts of electricity running throughout my body- sometimes I can control some of my body movements. But when I am asleep and my aura doesn't wake me up, I am awakened by the jerks of my body. :( Not fun.

Hugs,
Janellie
 
That's sounds pretty tough especially when for many it seems like sleep dep is also a trigger for seizures. Vicious circle, maybe?
 
Has anyone tried using fitbit, a little bracelet device that tracks steps, stairs climbed, calories, etc. + sleep. Don't know what/how it tracks sleep, but wondering if any of you have tried it.
 
Bentwanderer,
I believe there are some that detect sleep and record it. Recording possible seizure activity could be a very plausible and great way to use them! While awake or asleep.
 
Most of the symptoms you've all described in this thread, I've had. You may have a form of sleep apnea.

Maybe you should speak to your Neurologist about sending you for a sleep study to determine what's causing your night seizures and how many you have during the night.

Re Having seizures during your sleep: Could be due to lack of oxygen to the brain while you sleep from sleep aids such as certain anti-epileptic drugs, sleeping pills, severe snoring or some sort of restriction to the airway.

I have been dx'd with Chronic Obstructive Sleep Apnea.
After my sleep disorders test the Dr. showed me the EEG from that one night, I would stop breathing up to 50 times/hour and had 3 seizures and that I was waking up "post ictal" (moody and spaced out) tired,lethargic, (feel like crap)
I have purchased a CPAP machine (Constant Positive Air Pressure)as recommended by my Doctor, which provides constant air pressure and have noticed a vast improvement.
No more snoring (the whole family sleeps better now), more energy when I wake up, better REM sleep, improved memory (less short term memory loss), and most of all ~ NO MORE NIGHT SEIZURES.

Randy
__________________
Diagnosed with epilepsy and ulcerative colitis in 1979,
Been on meds ever since.
__________________
Diagnosed with epilepsy and ulcerative colitis in 1979,
Been on meds ever since.

275mg-dilantin/day
120mg-pheonobarb/day
3,000mg-Mesasol/day
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Has anyone tried using fitbit, a little bracelet device that tracks steps, stairs climbed, calories, etc. + sleep. Don't know what/how it tracks sleep, but wondering if any of you have tried it.
I've tried the fitbit. I sleep fairly soundly due to the lamictal, so it didn't register any unusual problems. It would be interesting to see what the fitbit showed for someone with nocturnal seizures. An even better option would be scheduling an overnight sleep study with EEG...
 
I've woke up several times in the middle of the night hearing things. It's usually the phone ringing. I'll jump out of bed to answer it then realize it's not ringing. I don't know if this could be some sort of seizure or if it's just me?
 
Could just be simple tinnitus (ringing in the ears) that is completely unrelated to seizures.
 
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