Childhood epilepsy and sleep

Abstract

Sleep and epilepsy are two well recognized conditions that interact with each other in a complex bi-directional way. Some types of epilepsies have increased activity during sleep disturbing it; while sleep deprivation aggravates epilepsy due to decreased seizure threshold. Epilepsy can deteriorate the sleep-related disorders and at the same time; the parasomnias can worsen the epilepsy. The secretion of sleep-related hormones can also be affected by the occurrence of seizures and supplementation of epileptic patients with some of these sleep-related hormones may have a beneficial role in controlling epilepsy.

Keywords: Nocturnal frontal lobe epilepsy; Sleep; Parasomnias; Sleep-related hormones

Core tip: The relation of sleep and epilepsy was discovered many centuries ago. Some types of epilepsies have increased activity during sleep disturbing it; while sleep deprivation aggravates epilepsy. Both are integrating together; so that controlling epilepsy will improve the sleeping quality while consolidating sleep will ease controlling the seizures. Meticulous care of sleep pattern and quality in epileptic children has significant effects for diagnosis, efficacy of controlling seizure activity, and health-related quality of life. Adequate studying of the sleep related disorders and hormones may give a clue for new methods of better epilepsy control.