Hi Karen,

As I understand it the abnormal EEG patterns which characterise epilepsy are
more easily detected when the patient is either asleep or dozing.
Hospitals, ever pragmatic, therefore prefer to have tired people arrive at
their premises to take an EEG rather than trundle their kit up to your place
once you've dozed off <g>.

When our daughter needed to have a sleep-deprived EEG we were told to keep
her up until midnight and then wake her at 5:00am.  In fact we kept her up
to 2:00am and then woke her at 7:00am as that seemed an easier solution.  So
it's not sleep-deprivation in any extreme sense, rather just ensuring that
you are tired enough to doze through what's a fairly dull and boring
procedure, at least for patient and parents.

People work differently on small amounts of sleep, so I don't know whether
you should postpone your appointments.  My experience of job interviews is
that adrenalin will probably keep you awake regardless of the amount of
sleep you've had the previous night.  And remember you will probably doze
off during the test so you may well get another hour of catch-up sleep
during the test as well!

Regards,

Peter Beach

Hi Karen
I had 2 of the sleep deprevation tests done and they really aren't
bad...but for the next day I was wiped so I would reschedule the interview
for the next day"being a recruiter that is my professional advice"...
as for worrying about the tests...that is probably a good thing as they
want you stressed out from lack of sleep and stress and then wire you for
sound and put that nice flashing light in front of your eyes....
It is a good test and normally will show small areas of problems where the
regular eeg doesn't...because if you have epilepsy and are similar to me we
are more susceptible"sorry for the spelling"...to seizures when we are
tired..stressed or have had a nite of bar hoping.. ; )
cheers.

Another poster had the same experience as me.  Asked to stay up past
midnight and wake up at 5:00am.  The only problem for me is that I get wired
when I stay up too late... at least until I settle down at home.  Thus I
stayed up past midnight, couldn't sleep until 2:00 or so, woke up at 5:00,
drove through traffic to get to the doctor's by 8:15, filled out paperwork,
got prepped with them sticking glue and wires all over me, and laid in an
uncomfortable bed with said wires for over an hour while they tried to get
me to sleep.  I haven't been able to sleep for any of my 4 EEG's.  Of
course, later on I get home and I want to do some fun stuff but then I'm
suddenly too tired <g>.

The last sleep deprived EEG I had left me with what I might consider an aura
later that day... I was playing a 3D video game on the computer to pass time
and I suddenly found myself sweating and feeling nauseated.  I laid down to
go to sleep and felt ill for the rest of the day.

I haven't had such a feeling while playing this game (or any time for that
matter) before or after this incident, although I recognized the feeling as
one I had had when I was much younger before my epilepsy was diagnosed
(similar situations... little or no sleep just before).

This leads me to my theory about the best medicine for a person with
epilepsy.  Get consistent and adequate sleep every night.  Yes, keep taking
your drugs, etc..  But I highly recommend the above advice. :)

Be careful when you are sleep deprived...

--
Mike

I called the hospital where I'm having the EEG done and they told me
that they'd like me to stay awake 24 hours before the test, and that it
will take 1 1/2 hours.

I think the hardest part will be no caffine.

The only reason they did a sleep depreviation test was because the first
EEG (no sleep deprivation for the first one) was normal.  Instead of going
to bed at your normal time, you just stay up all night.  When they did the
EEG, they wanted me to relax enough to just be on the verge of falling
asleep but not actually fall asleep.  They put me in a relaxing chair and
even covered me with warm blankets.

Being without sleep for a long time did not provoke any seizure acitivity;
that EEG was also normal.  I was able to function but did not know what the
heck I was doing.  By the time I got home, I had been without sleep for at
least 30 hours and felt terrible.

Barb