In a study of “stress convulsions,” provoking factors included lack of sleep but also emotional, somatic, and intellectual stress, abuse of alcohol, and abuse of drugs ( 9). In another series, soldiers were sleep deprived for prolonged periods (many for >48 hours), and the majority had ingested alcohol the night before their seizures ( 8). The majority of these individuals had evidence of generalized spike-and-wave activity on EEGs. In one series, pilots had their first, single generalized tonic–clonic seizure in the setting of sleep deprivation, work-related stress, missed meals, and in one case, heavy alcohol use ( 6, 7). Cases from the 1960s and 1970s focused on military personnel. In 1962, Janz ( 5) reported that in patients with generalized tonic–clonic seizures, sleep deprivation, along with alcohol consumption, was a known precipitant of epileptic seizures, particularly seizures on awakening. This review presents the evidence for and against sleep deprivation as a trigger for epileptic seizures and interictal activity.Ĭase Series: Does Sleep Deprivation Alone or in Combination with Other Factors Promote Epileptic Seizures? Meanwhile, basic science investigations of the effects of sleep deprivation on memory and neuronal excitability, at both the behavioral and cellular levels, have heightened our interest in the impact of sleep deprivation on hippocampal function. Forty years later, clinical research studies are critically examining these assumptions. Might sleep deprivation also affect seizure control in patients with epilepsy?Ī series of articles in the 1960s and 1970s suggested that sleep deprivation was a promoter of epileptic seizures and a facilitator of interictal epileptiform discharges. Sleep deprivation has been associated with a variety of physiologic effects, ranging from impaired appetite suppression ( 3) to altered learning and memory ( 4). Sleep is a highly sought-after commodity in our fast-paced society, with sleep loss more potent than alcohol in causing sedation ( 2).

Sleep deprived eeg