SLEEP DISTURBANCES IN PATIENTS WITH EPILEPSY

Good-quality sleep is an important and frequently overlooked component of good health,and is particularly essential to patients with epilepsy. Epilepsy is associated with sleep fragmentationand reduced sleep efficiency. Epileptic patients sleep can be affected by seizures, concurrent sleep disorders and drugs used for seizure treatment. Poor quality sleep can result in poor daytime functioning and potentially worsening epilepsy. The comorbidity between epilepsy and sleep disturbances is poorly studied in Indian population and rarely taken into consideration by treating physician. This study is to investigate the prevalence of sleep disturbance in epileptic patients.Nocturnal sleep disturbance and Excessive daytime sleepiness in epileptic patients were assessed by Athens insomnia scale and Epsworth sleepiness scale. Forty out of eighty five epileptic patients (47)had sleep disturbances. Among them, thirty-eight(44) had nocturnal sleep disturbances and twentysix (30.5) had excessive daytime sleepiness. Among them, twenty four had both nocturnal sleep disturbances and excessive daytime sleepiness. Sleep disturbances were more common in patients on polytherapy. In non-epileptic control group, eight had sleep related problems. This study highlights the existence of high prevalence of sleep disturbances has high prevalence in epileptic patients and emphasizes the importance for looking into other co-morbid sleep related disorders that may deteriorate sleep quality and worsen seizure control.