Spontaneous Arm Movement Activity during Sleep in Epileptic and Non-Epileptic Patients.

PURPOSE: Epilepsy has a complex interaction with sleep. The purpose of this study was to explore the relation between spontaneous arm movements and sleep architecture in patients with epilepsy.

METHODS: This prospective study included 53 patients with suspected epilepsy (44 ± 18 years; 30 females, 23 males) and 55 age-matched patients with non-epileptic seizures (42 ± 15: 27 females, 28 males). Twenty-four-hour-video-electroencephalography recordings were combined with accelerometry of movement activity of both arms using actiwatches.

RESULTS: Patients with suspected epilepsy showed a higher occurrence of epileptic discharges (p = 0.0001) and abnormal focal slowing (p = 0.027) in the electroencephalogram (EEG) than the patients with non-epileptic seizures. Also, the epilepsy patients showed a shorter rapid eye movement-sleep duration compared to controls (0.0001). Accelerometry revealed that the patients with epilepsy moved their dominant right arm more frequently during the night (p = 0.014) than the controls, although there was no difference in arm movement activity during day time.

CONCLUSION: The patients with reported epilepsy exhibited higher spontaneous arm movement activity during sleep. This may be related to abnormal sleep architecture or abnormal EEG activity but was not related to epileptic seizures.