For those who experience siezures primarily or exclusively during sleep, are there any methods of treatment for this type of episode that people have had luck with? I have fairly frequent nighttime partial siezures and am looking for treatment for them, which may be available. I have not found any specialty doctors so far in my search, or special treatments, but would be thankful to anyone who could point me in the right direction.

I wish all of you the best of luck and health.
Chris

Hi Chris my little girl is been tested right now for sleep seizures! She has grand mals l dont kow much yet about them and l dont know how many she has had that l havnt been aware of yet ( we are aware of 3 which we actually seen and a possible 4th when we heard her making noises in bed and found her vomiting and couldnt wake her up) as yet she is on no treatment as we dont know how frequent they are Good luck

Hi Chris, I have CPs mostly at night or early in the morning. Sometimes I'll lay down for a nap and have some during the dat too. The only thing my team has come up with to control them is surgery. I really hope you can find something short of that if you want. If the seizures are intractable surgery is sometimes the best move. Good luck and you will be in my prayers tonight. Jeff

I am not aware of any specific treatment for nocturnal seizures that is different from the treatments used for seizures occuring during the day. Mine started as nocturnal seizures I think, but as the disease progressed. and it does progress if not stopped cold, my seizures started occuring during the day and continued to get worse over time. Mine were intractible. The hardest seizures to control with meds are Partial seizures. That is what I have, Complex Partials. Once one AED fails to stop your seizures, there is less than a 15% chance that any of the AEDs will stop your seizures. That is fact. Since your seizures are only occurring during the night, I would want to make sure there was not another treatable cause for them like sleep apnea or another possible cause. Have those avenues been thoroughly checked? The treatment for that will not necessarlily be the same as the AEDs. I would expect different treatment all together if it is sleep apnea etc. Your medical doc should be involved in the asessment to make sure there is not a Medical cause for your seizures such as metabolic conditions, sleep disturbances etc. The specialist who treats only seizures is an Epileptologist. They have training beyond the general neurology residency called a Fellowship. You will find lots of mention of this type of specialist on this forum. I had surgery 6 yrs ago but after 35 years of uncontrolled seizures. If you go to an Epleptologist at a Comprehensive Epilepsy Center, they can offer you the treatments more specific to your case unless it turns out to have some other cause. As long as they are strictly Nocturnal, the Epileptologist may choose not to offer options besides meds, but since it does progesss if not stopped, he/she might. You have to check. Phoebe

Jeff, have you already undergone the surgery? Can you tell me more of what you went through in trying to overcome the siezures before you decided on surgery? Or have you not gone on to surgery yet? I will also say a prayer for you. Good luck on all.
Chris

Phoebe, may I ask you more details of your story? Or are you sensitive about talking about it? How often were you having your siezures? Are your siezures under control somewhat now? What do you know about the various night time causes? I did just have a night time check for snoring to see if I have sleep apnea, and I do, so that is interesting to me.

Chris

I had surgery 6 yrs ago for my seizures. The cause was a focus in my right temporal lobe, but you find that out when you have the tests necessary. You do need to discuss all of this with your docs. The sooner you have it done the better provided that is even an option based on your individual case I have learned so epilepsy and seizures don't cause such hovoc with your growth and Dev. My story is here already I started posting several years ago and stop by once in a while still. Please use the Search feature and Search for the type of seizures you have, Nocturnal and Simple or Complex Partial, and also for the user TKDMOM96. Her daughter had the same surgery, and I was her mentor through it. Do Research
sleep apnea too, and ask your doc about that. I do not mind discussing my surgery, but it is here already pretty much. Keep in touch. Phoebe

Hi Chris, I had a different kind of surgery in August last year. It's called gamma knife surgery or radiosurgery. It's usually used for tumors or cancers of the brain and spinal cord. When I was diagnosed I was put on dilantin alone. It stopped the cluster seizures for about 3 months. I had them just not as often. I thought everyone with epilepsy had seizures no matter what. I was dealling with a GP at that time. I finally saw a neurologist at an epilepsy center and was put on different drugs in an attempt to get control. My neuro tried 4 or 5 different AEDs. They would work for a few months, then back to the same pattern. In 99 I was put on a surgery program and started the tests. I had MRIs then neuropsycological testing then video monitoring of the seizures. Finally it came to the WADA test and they couldn't do it because I have a blocked corodid artery in my neck. I was knocked out of the program at that time. In 04 I was put back on and did all the testing again plus new tests called fMRIs. In August I went to the hospital for the surgery. There are advantages and disadvantages of gamma knife for TLE. I only stayed in the hospital overnight but it takes up to 2 years to show full results of the surgery. After 8 months my seizures have improved. I was having clusters every month at least once, this last month I only had 2 individual seizures! My recovery time afterward is much shorter. I'm rattling on here. Sorry about that. I hope I gave you some answers you were looking for. Good luck and you will be in my prayers. Jeff

To stop my night seizures I took my normal medicine about an hour before I went to bed. I also bought one of those sports mouth guards to sleep with incase my boyfriend notices any tremors throughout the night. hope it helps!

Amanda

While this topic is up. I am wondering is there anyone who wets the bed when they have seizures in their sleep?

Ethan