Sleep epilepsy

BACKGROUND- Seizures during sleep have been recognized for centuries, and it is well known that both sleep and lack of sleep can influence the occurrence of ictal and interictal events. Sleep epilepsy refers to the subset of epilepsy in which seizures occur exclusively or predominantly during sleep. Primary generalized, secondarily generalized, and focal partial epilepsy syndromes can all manifest as sleep epilepsy. The spread of polysomnography has increased our ability to accurately diagnose sleep epilepsy and facilitated the discovery of an autosomal dominant sleep epilepsy. REVIEW SUMMARY- This review summarizes the epidemiology of sleep epilepsy and reviews a number of epilepsies that can manifest as sleep epilepsy as well as some nonepileptic sleep disorders from which sleep epilepsy must be differentiated.