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Seizures while sleeping~
Tue, 01/25/2005 - 17:03Topic: New to Epilepsy.com
Hello everyone,
I am new to this site... It is late, but I thought I would throw this question out -
Anyone have grand mals only while sleeping?
My apologies if I'm not using the correct verbiage (grand mal, to me, meaning the 'generic' seizures 1 hears about mainly throughout life - full body convulsions lasting a couple of minutes, eyes rolling, etc.).
This encompasses my seizure history, mainly. Quick summary: If I have a petit mal, it starts in my right arm, electric feeling, tone in the ear, still have full control. When sleeping, many times I wake up w/ what seems to have started as this right arm petit mal, but has 'spread' into my chest. Most of the time I can wake myself up out of them...seems if my level of awake/self-awareness is high enough, I can stop a grand mal from happening. However, there are times when I can not wake up enough. I then lapse into a seizure, experiencing/remembering far too much (scary!), & then next thing I know I am waking up very groggy, & so on.
Some may see this as a blessing in disguise, as I have never had a grand mal when I've not been asleep first. I suppose it is, but the experience is no less terrifying.
Thanks for the feedback,
Ache
Comments
RE: RE: Seizures while sleeping~
Submitted by kodankk on Tue, 2005-01-25 - 07:59
alliepeanut -- my son had a full tonic/clonic seizure in July, then a number of simple partial seizures in October before we put him on meds. He's only had two episodes since then (one of which we think was before his meds dosage was properly set).It appears that he has Benign Rolandic Epilepsy as every symptom he's displayed ties into this syndrome -- except -- his EEG doesn't show the spike in exactly the right place. Our neuro will neither confirm nor deny (I sound like a politician) a diagnosis of Benign Rolandic without my son taking a more thorough EEG.I offer the above as background for you as you read what follows: What I iniitally thought was odd was that my son had his tonic/clonic seizure just before his normal waking time and every simple partial seizure in the first 15 minutes of sleep. In fact, I can now actually watch his movements and facial twitching (pre-seizure) in his first fifteen minutes of sleep to know when he is past the point of having a seizure.My neuro explained that the brain undergoes quite a status change upon falling asleep and upon waking. He correlated it with using the gear shift on a car -- you spend the day with your brain in 5th gear but at night you start shifting gears down to REM sleep and then back up to start the day. It is in this shifting period that some people are more susceptible to seizures.You're not alone.
Seizures while sleeping~
Submitted by Javalava on Tue, 2012-11-20 - 14:23
Hi Kodankk, I know this post is 7 years old, but, I am wondering if you are still a aite member and if so would like to message you. My daughter is 5, dx'd this spring and her picture fits exactly with your son's. Thanks, Rachael
RE: Seizures while sleeping~
Submitted by alliepeanut on Tue, 2005-01-25 - 06:59
90% of my tonic-clonics are when I sleep. They usually occur about 20 minutes-1 hour after I fall asleep. My neuro doesn't act like this an unusual event. So I am assuming that there are many epileptics who are in the same boat