Abstract
BackgroundSleep disorders and epilepsy commonly exist and affect each other. Patients with epilepsy often complain of poor sleep and on the other hand, poor sleep makes epilepsy control difficult.ObjectivesWe aimed at comparing the sleep disturbances in a group of patients with medically controlled epilepsy versus another group with medically refractory epilepsy, from the electrophysiological standpoint.Subjects and methodsSixty epilepsy patients were included; half of them with controlled epilepsy were assigned as group I, and the other half with refractory epilepsy was assigned as group II. All patients had an overnight polysomnogram and sleep EEG done. We excluded any patient with abnormal general or neurological clinical examination.ResultsPatients in group II, had significantly delayed sleep onset latency and REM latency. However, higher arousal index, insomnia, and periodic limb movement index were found to be significantly higher in group I. Respiratory events; as light sleep durations, were observed to be higher in Group II, in addition to apnea-hypopnea index that was significantly higher in this group.ConclusionEpilepsy affects sleep architecture and sleep-related events. Patients with refractory epilepsy suffer from more disturbance in sleep patterns. Moreover, antiepileptic drugs can have a diverse effect on sleep architecture and quality in epileptic patients.
Highlights
Sleep disorders and epilepsy commonly exist and affect each other
Patients with refractory epilepsy suffer from more disturbance in sleep patterns
Antiepileptic drugs can have a diverse effect on sleep architecture and quality in epileptic patients
Summary
Sleep disorders and epilepsy commonly exist and affect each other. Patients with epilepsy often complain of poor sleep, and on the other hand, poor sleep makes epilepsy control difficult [1]. Treatment of sleep disorders improves quality of life of patients with epilepsy [2]. We aimed at comparing the sleep disturbances in a group of patients with medically controlled epilepsy versus another group with medically refractory epilepsy, from the electrophysiological standpoint. Sleep disorders and epilepsy commonly exist and affect each other. Patients with epilepsy often complain of poor sleep and on the other hand, poor sleep makes epilepsy control difficult
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