Abstracts

Rationale: Sleep patterns of parents of healthy children have been documented, and some studies have addressed the effect of chronic illness in caregivers’ sleep. However, there have been no studies documenting the effect of children with epilepsy in caregivers’ sleep patterns. Children with epilepsy, especially if they have nocturnal seizures, may disrupt caregivers’ sleep. Methods: We conducted a survey about children with epilepsy and their caregivers’ sleep disturbances, and described preliminary findings. The inclusion criteria included children with epilepsy from 1 month to 18 years old who presented to the NYU Comprehensive Epilepsy Center outpatient clinic. Results: There were 22 patients with epilepsy included in the study. The mean age was 6.5 years and 12 were boys. There were ten patients who had nocturnal seizures. Eleven patients had a learning disability. Sixteen children slept in their own bed and five children slept in their parents’ bed most of the time. Eight children reported having trouble falling asleep, and seven children reported difficulty sleeping through the night. The caretakers had an average of 7.15 hours of sleep at night, but 12 of them reported inadequate sleep. Seven caregivers reported trouble falling asleep and mentioned worries about the intensity of their child’s seizures as well as the general well being of their child as the main reasons. Six caregivers reported their sleep to be worse now than before their children’s epilepsy diagnosis. Seventeen caregivers reported fatigue and twelve reported not feeling refreshed in the mornings. There were not enough patients to establish a relationship of children’s seizure frequency with their caregivers’ sleep disturbances. Conclusions: The caregivers of children with epilepsy reported fatigue and non-restorative sleep. The caregivers also reported problems in falling asleep, mostly related to worries about their child’s seizure intensity and well-being.