The effects of seizures on sleep
- mstanton16
- Jul 9
- 2 min read
When working in the Epilepsy Monitoring Unit, one of the first things we would try in bringing on a seizure is to sleep deprived the patient. We would only let them sleep for maybe three hours; the goal was to stress out the brain so that the patient would eventually have one of their typically events.
The importance of sleep in people with epilepsy and honestly with anyone is so crucial.
The long-term effects of not getting sleep can lead to several conditions including heart attacks, stroke, high blood pressure, depression, and obesity.
The mechanism of sleep deprivation may include disruption of circadian rhythms and the impairment of neurotransmitter function. Lack of sleep will elevate cortisol which in turn will cause an increase in cravings of carbohydrates and sugar. This may lead to weight gain and psychiatric complications.
During my time working in the EMU unit, some of our patients would be young college kids who would be pulling all-nighters studying for exams and this would bring out seizure events that they did not have before. People with seizures have irregular sleep due to having events during the night.
Even when the patient has a seizure during the day it can affect their sleep for many days after. The ironic part is several medications given to patients with epilepsy may cause them to have trouble sleeping. The dose and timing of antiepileptic medications need to be planned out well because it may cause drowsiness during the day. In return the patient would sleep all day and not end up wanting to sleep at night.
Patients with epilepsy tend to spend more time in light sleep stages and less time in REM (rapid eye movement) which is connected to deep sleep.
On an EEG study, patients who have epilepsy may have less sleep spindles during sleep. Sleep spindles are an electrical activity seen during sleep that help with memory, learning, and the ability to stay asleep.
In an article of the sleep foundation, it states that up to 15% of patients with epilepsy have seizures during sleep or immediately after waking up. I thought this number would be a way higher due to the standard practice of ordering patients to be sleep deprived before an EEG test.
As I say to my daughter all the time our brains are like a computer, we need to shut them down at night and have them recharge for the next day.
Comments