seizure onl;y in sleep

my dad had 5 episodes of seizure like activity starting may 2009 while asleep,the last one a week ago. his eyes were open, face and limbs rigid, and was not breathing. i positioned him on his side and performed head tilt and chin lift. this allowed some secretion to flow out of his mouth and very slowly he regained respiration. immediately he falls into deep sleep and cannot be waken up for at least 15 minutes. after his first episode he was hospitalized and EEG,ECG, CT of head and neck and MRI were performed to find everything normal. He is 55 years old, and otherwise healthy. If it is seizure or epilepsy, why does it happen only while asleep? he at times instantly falls asleep during day time which lead me to doubt sleep apnoea..if so how would he become unconscious and never have any memory of such an incident? can anyone help me identify the disorder as the doctors still focus on seizure. he used to be on levitrazepam (keppra).....

[dollyn]

I am sorry your Dad is going threw this.

There are a lot of people who have night time Seizures and what this dose is make it so they don't really get the sleep they need.The way my son's Neurologist explain it to us is that it is like waken up ever 5min , and that they don't even know it is happening to them at the time. When you don't get the sleep you need because of the Seizures it makes you sleep a lot during the day time,and also Seizures them self make you wan to sleep.

There are Seizures that you can't always  see ,so I am sorry to say but your Dad may be having Seizures that you can't see and he doesn't know he is having them,while he is awake also.  I know my Son has Seizures that you can't always see unless he is in the Hospital and they are doing a Video EEG . My son can look like he is fine be playing a game watching TV or eating and have a Seizure and you wouldn't know it.

They should do a Video EEG and run a lot of blood work on your dad and also have them do a EKG.

Stress is a big thing that causes Seizures,so if there has been any changes in his life .They could be causing him to have Seizures. Family history of Seizures. Medicines he may be on or had been on in the past could be causing them,Because a lot of Medicines have side effects. I would look up everything he has been on or is on and see what the side effects of the Medicines are.

I hope this gives you some help.

I am happy that you are there for your Dad .And I also know how scared you are and worried you are. Stay strong.

And know that it takes time to find the right Medicine and most times it takes more that one Medicine to try and stop the Seizures .

My son is on medicines and still has Seizures every day and even had Surgery last year in June to have what is called the VNS put in and it has been turned up  6 times so far.

God bless your Dad and you and the rest of your family.

[dollyn]

Checking in with you to see how your dad is doing. I hope he is getting better and that you are getting what you need from the Doctors.

[Loma1003]

OMG!!!!!!!!! I finally know of someone who has seizures like me; only while asleep. They have done sooo many tests on me, and, well, everything is fine. I still have to take medicine, though. I take Tegretol; What did you say your dad takes?
Oh, and  I take 4 pills a day. The doctor has told me that it can't be reduced unless I go for 2 years without a seizure, which, sadly, has not happened yet; i just had a seizure last month :-(  I've been like this since I was 17 years old; i am now 32. yep, it's been quite some time now.
But, the other day i was browsing through the internet, and found out about what may be the answer to my problem. I read about something called Non-Epileptic Seizures; these have nothing to do with Epilepsy. They occur when something really DRAMATIC happens in your life. And,  since it's sooo traumatic, it stays within you, and,  you end up having seizures; and only at a certain time of day; in this case, while asleep.
   Maybe you should look this up. It might help. I wish you the very best for your dad.