Question:
Has anyone ever heard of Sleep apnea, and Epilepsy being connected? I
have Sleep Apnea bad and am now being treated for it. I have to use a Bi Pap
machine to keep my breathing regular at night. During the study, in a 7 hr
time frame, I slept 5 hours, with 190 stop breathing for 26 seconds, I also
had shallow breathings of 154 times with over 711 leg movements, jerking...
My doctor told me to tell the Neuro. about the findings and what is being
done to stop them... He said there might be a connection with seizures..
Has any one ever heard this before?
Answer:
it is not the apnea itself,but lack of rest that can trigger
seizures(increased stress/sleep dep).i am to be tested at cleveland
clinic for it next month because of it's connection to them.(according
to them there is a definite connection
Seizure disorder and sleep apnea are common chronic disorders in children, but
the relationship between sleep apnea and seizure control has not been studied
in the pediatric population. This retrospective review included nine children
with neurodevelopmental disorders who had well-documented sleep apneic episodes
and seizure disorders. Seizure frequency was reduced in five patients (56%) in
the first 12 months after sleep apnea treatment without changes in their
antiepileptic medications. Sleep apnea can be one of the seizure precipitants
in children with epilepsy. This study indicates the importance of identifying
sleep apnea when treating children with intractable epilepsy, particularly in
those who are at high risk.
Over the past two to three decades, sleep medicine has emerged as an important
discipline as it strives to meet the challenges of some of the most prevalent
disorders among humans. Among the 110 disorders listed in the International
Classification of Sleep Disorders, two of the most prevalent and treatable have
only recently begun to receive significant attention: sleep apnea and restless
legs syndrome with sleep-related periodic limb movements disorder. It is
becoming clear that the sleep disruption caused by such disorders has
ramifications beyond the usually associated daytime sleepiness, and may
include: exacerbation of seizures, headaches, short-term memory deficits, and
other cognitive problems. Sleep apnea has also been correlated with
hypertension and cardiovascular/cerebrovascular disease. Animal studies have
taken this one step further by demonstrating that total sleep deprivation is
consistently fatal, usually within 1 month, although the precise mechanism
remains to be discovered. The most compelling finding in the animal studies is
that "rescuing" the animals with sleep, before the irreversible stage, is
associated with rebound amounts of deep sleep and rapid eye movement (REM)
sleep ("dream sleep"). This same response is seen after initiating treatment of
sleep apnea with nasal continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP), and can also
occur in patients with other sleep disorders in response to particular
medications, such as valproate or gabapentin.
What exactly is sleep apnea?
My son sleeps extremely heavily,you can shake him sometimes and he still won`t
wake up.
When in a deep sleep,he also seems to "stop breathing" for a second or
two,followed by a big "sigh",then he continues as normal.
With my daughter,she sometimes breathes very shallowly and rapidly while asleep.
Sounds like it might be sleep apnea, at least that is what my father acted like
and he was diagnosed with it. A doctor is the best judge. I never realized
there was a connection between epilepsy and sleep apnea but maybe that explains
my seizures.
I sometimes have (quite terrifying) dreams in which I am unable to
breath and plead (in the dream) for someone to PLEASE wake me up. This
has happens often, and suprisingly in the dream I call out for
assistance from whatever person is in the house with me (my brother, a
friend, etc.) when I'm sleeping. I'm sure this is my subconscious
generating a dream to try to warn my waking self.
I had gran mal seizures for several years following a concussion that I had as a
pre-teen. Eventually I stopped having seizures and went off the medication.
Then two years ago I had a gran mal seizure again. The neurologist did various
tests, one of which was a sleep study. It turned out that I had fairly severe
sleep apnea. The neurologist thinks that may have caused me to have another
seizure after all these years, although he doesn't know that for sure. The
doctor did mention that lack of adequate sleep can bring on seizures. But I
think that might only be in people that already have a seizure disorder.
