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Conditions and Diseases > Epilepsy Forum > Parasomnia/seizure
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Q: Parasomnia/seizure
asked by: huskersfan on November 4th, 2005
New User
My daughter began experiencing unusual night time behavior about a year and 1/2 ago. She was six at the time. She had what Dr.S seem to agree was a febrile seizure. Two days later she had a similar episode which have continued several times a month since then. Before this she had never had any sleeping problems and has a strictly adhered to before bed routine.She has had a 3 day veeg which showed nothing as no events happened while she was there. Since they did not observe it during that time our neuro. Said it was most likely a parasomnia and not to worry. We still have lingering doubts as to this diagnosis. A typical episode is as follows. Awakens approx. 90 minutes after falls asleep. No screaming, but rapid heartrate, feelings of fear,pale face. Gets up and wanders purposefully while doing repitive hand movements involving picking at clothes, rubbing mouth and face,smacking lips,spitting gestures and excessive saliva. She will communicate with us with difficulty. She says something is wrong, things look funny(sometimes she says everything is small and out of proportion) all the while rapidly picking, rubbing face, gesturing and feeling very fearful but cannot verbalize a reason. She will always start farting and rumbling tummy in the middle of this ( I know it is kind of funny) the episode ends suddenly(it lasts a total of 3-5 minutes) and she frequently looks spacy while rubbing nose with right hand vigourously and sometimes coughing. She will then fall back asleep or sometimes just come out of it and talk to us for a moment before sleeping. She has no memory at all of event even immediatly following and wonders why she is not in her room. Have any of you or your children had night terrors/confusional arousals which fit this pattern? Many of the symptoms seem to overlap with temporal lobe seizures. Each episode is virtually identical. Any input is appreciated.
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kayakmom
replied on November 5th, 2005
Experienced User
I have a bunch of questions. What kind of doctor did the study? Has any doctor discussed the possibility of complex partial seizures? It is possible to have a normal eeg (most of my sons have been normal, never catching a seizure on it. He has had some that were abnormal as well.).......


What you describe sounds to me like a complex partial depending on a few things.
1. Does she remember anything about this the next day?

2. How is she when she wakes up?

3. Does she act or seem different on the mornings after she has this happen?

She can have a regular sleep study to help rule in or out parasomnias. Usually an eeg is not going to see all that a sleep study does as far as the various sleep parasomnias.

My son has epilepsy as well as periodic limb movement disorder. He had a misdiagnosis of parasomnia for 2 years.
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