As well as typical seizure symptoms they may increase the risk of other complications. The stress that sleep apnea causes to your body during the night can induce seizures.
Nocturnal seizures occur when a person is asleep.
Sleep apnea and seizures. In fact a university of michigan study found that as many as one third of epilepsy patients also has sleep apnea. People who have sleep apnea are more prone to heart problems diabetes and sudden death from any cause. 2 2017 healthday news it s been used by many people to help ease sleep apnea but new research suggests the cpap mask may also help ease seizures in people with epilepsy.
Transient increase in epileptiform discharges after the introduction of nasal continuous positive airway pressure in a patient with obstructive sleep apnea and epilepsy. Sleep apnea and epilepsy. Learn more in this article.
Because lack of sleep is a trigger for seizures achieving healthy sleep on a nightly basis is essential for people with epilepsy. When your breathing gets cut off it can cause your body to go into a state of distress which can in turn induce a seizure. 2018 published online january 31 2018.
Obstructive sleep apnea can also make other health problems worse as well. The epilepsy foundation also references the connection. For those with epilepsy sleep apnea has been known to create a higher likelihood of night seizures.
If sleep apnea is suspected or your sleep is just so fragmented that you re having seizures and difficulties during the day a sleep study is highly recommended. Sleep studies polysomnography with expanded eeg aids can indicate the difference between seizures and parasomnias a different kind sleep disorder and diagnosis if the condition is truly sleep apnea which can exacerbate. A study found people with epilepsy and sleep apnea who were treated with positive airway pressure were more likely to have their seizures reduced by half than those not treated.
In one series obstructive sleep apnea was found in 71 percent of people with epilepsy who were referred for a sleep study research is now focused on sleep apnea therapies to see if they can lessen the severity and frequency of epileptic events for those who have both conditions. Sleep apnea often remains undiagnosed. Sleep apnea syndrome is a disorder of abnormal respiration during sleep that results in a combination of hypoxemia and hypercapnia.
In many people restoring healthy sleep is imperative for controlling the frequency and severity of seizures. People with epilepsy also have a high incidence of sleep apnea. Hitomi t oga t tsuboi t et al.
The syndrome can be caused by obstruction of the upper airway during sleep by abnormality in regulation of breathing by the central nervous system or by a combination of obstructive and central problems.
