Evaluation of sleep habits in children with epilepsy

Sleep disturbances are a common complaint among patients with epilepsy. Studies assessing the relationship between sleep and epilepsy during childhood are scarce. The purpose of this study was to evaluate sleep habits in children with epilepsy. This cross-sectional study of children with and without epilepsy employed two questionnaires to evaluate sleep habits. Characteristics of both sleep habits and epilepsy (type of seizure, epileptic syndrome, number of seizures, use of anticonvulsant drugs) were collected from parental interviews and medical records. Our results indicate that children with epilepsy have a greater incidence of sleep problems compared with children without epilepsy. In those with epilepsy, we observed that nocturnal seizures, polytherapy, developmental delay, refractory epilepsy, generalized seizures, and epileptic syndromes with an unfavorable outcome are associated with poor sleep habits. (c) 2007 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.