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. 2025 Jun 19;62(2):172-178.
doi: 10.29399/npa.28732. eCollection 2025.

Sleep Disorders in Patients with Epilepsy

Aytül Mutlu  1 , Aysel Büşra Şişman  1 , Sefer Günaydın  1 , Belgin Petek Balcı  1
Affiliations

Sleep Disorders in Patients with Epilepsy

Aytül Mutlu et al. Noro Psikiyatr Ars. .

Abstract

Introduction: This study aims to investigate obstructive sleep apnoea syndrome (OSAS), quality of sleep, excessive daytime sleepiness (EDS) and quality of life in patients with epilepsy.

Methods: One hundred and eleven epilepsy patients, diagnosed with ILAE (international league against epilepsy) criteria, were included in this study. The mean age of the patients was 37.6 ±13.1 (19-77) years. Fifty-four of the patients were (48.6%) men and 57 were (51.5%) women. Age, gender, education level, body mass index, seizure frequency, types of seizures, electroencephalography (EEG) findings, seizures during sleep, and number of anti-seizure drugs were recorded. Berlin Questionnaire (BQ) was used to screen OSAS. Sleep and quality of life were assessed with Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), Epworth Sleepiness Scale (ESS) and Quality of Life in Epilepsy-31(QOLIE-31) scales.

Results: Thirty-six percent of the patients' quality of sleep was poor and 20.7% had mild EDS. Low risk of OUAS was found in 89.2% of the patients. Quality of life was poor according to QOLIE-31. QOLIE 31 and PSQI total score had a statistically significant low negative correlation with BQ. PSQI total score had a statistically significant, low negative correlation with QOLIE-31. Poor sleep quality, EDS, OUAS and quality of life showed no correlation with demographic features, duration of disease, types of seizures, seizure frequency, number of anti-seizure drugs.

Conclusion: The poor quality of sleep was 36% in our study. Poor quality of sleep, excessive daytime sleepiness and obstructive sleep apnoea syndrome had no correlation with the demographic and clinical features of the patients with epilepsy but showed low correlation with quality of life.

Keywords: Disorders of excessive somnolence; epilepsy; obstructive sleep apnoea; quality of life.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of Interests: The authors declare that they have no competing interests concerning this manuscript.

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