study of postictal sleep architecture in epileptic patients

ABSTRACT

The relationship between sleep and epilepsy is complicated and reciprocal; an understanding of the influences of each on the other has important clinical implications. The post-ictal state precisely could produce profound changes in the sleep-wake cycle, and it frequently causes disruption in sleep architecture. To assess sleep architecture postictally, within a maximum period of 48 hours in epileptic patients. Post-ictal assessment of sleep architecture using polysomnographic recording and long-term video EEG monitoring was applied for twenty epileptic patients with non-symptomatic generalized or localization-related epilepsies as well as for 10 age and gender matched controls. All patients were submitted to full clinical, laboratory and radiological assessment. Epileptic patients had significantly less number of awakenings, higher percentages of S2, lower percentages of SWS from total sleep time and shorter latency to SWS as compared to the control. Patients with generalized epilepsies had significantly higher periods of sleep latency to S2 as compared to patients with focal seizures and those on polytherapy had significant shorter sleep latency to S2, with significant higher apnea index in NREM sleep compared to those on monotherapy. Post-ictal state appears to disrupt the regulation of sleep architecture, which mainly recognized in the NREM sleep