title: Sleep and epilepsy: opportunities for diagnosis and treatment.
abstract: Sleep and epilepsy have a dynamic interaction that presents the clinician opportunities for diagnosis and treatment. Sleep complaints are very common in patients with epilepsy and these complaints may be related to the underlying epilepsy, the treatment of epilepsy or other sleep related issues. Appropriate treatment of epilepsy may improve sleep, and treatment of sleep disorders may reduce the frequency of recurrent seizures. Sleep and sleep deprivation may provoke seizures and can provide further diagnostic information about the seizure type and location. For the clinician, understanding the relationship of sleep and epilepsy expands the diagnostic and therapeutic armamentarium.
authors.affiliation: Division of Sleep and Epilepsy, Department of Neurology, University of North Carolina School of Medicine, CB #7025, 2122 Physicians Office Building, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-7025, USA. vaughnb@neurology.unc.edu
authors.forename: Bradley V
authors.initials: BV
authors.lastname: Vaughn
authors.forename: Imran
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Ali
mesh_terms: D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D004827:Epilepsy / Q000150:complications / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000628:therapy*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011379:Prognosis; D012890:Sleep / Q000502:physiology*; D012893:Sleep Wake Disorders / Q000150:complications / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000628:therapy; D055815:Young Adult