Does anyone have experience with a sleep-deprived EEG?

[Wendi]

My 11yo ds will be having a sleep-deprived EEG next week. When I talked to the neurologist, I thought we'd be keeping him up ALL night, but the nurse at the EEG lab said he could sleep from about midnight to 3 or 4 a.m.

 

Has anyone done this? What will happen if ds doesn't sleep for the test?

 

Wendi

[scrappyhappymama]

and both times they wanted us to bring them in sleepy. Our doctor suggested keeping them up late the night before or waking them very early. In our case, it was so they would hopefully fall asleep on their own and they could get a sleeping reading. We did as asked, but my sons were both very young at the time of the test and not enough sleep can make a young one over-stimulated too, so they ended up sedating them a little bit and the test went fine.

[Sasharowan]

My dd has had 2 EEG's done and ds has had one. As long as the child will aly still and not move, they don't really worry about it. My dd was able to both times. She goes Mon. for (hopefully her last) another one. Ds was unable to lie still (being about 3 at the time) and was sedated. For dd's on Mon. they said 4-5 hours sleep and no caffeine.

[JumpedIntoTheDeepEndFirst]

It has to do with getting a reading on the brain at rest or not stimulated from the outside. With younger children it also involves the fact that they are unlikely to sit still to have all the nodes applied. I was told that if they couldn't sleep we would have to reschedule. They were willing to use some very mild sedation.

 

Don't worry about it-they do this with lots of kids and have seen it all.

[Quiver0f10]

My son has had to do this and is having another one on Thursday. We kept him up very late, @ 12 AM and then woke him very early @ 4-5. He normally goes to bed at 8 and sleeps till 6-7 so this worked well for him.

[unsinkable]

My kids have had these.

 

In our experience, the younger the child, the more sleep the child could have.

 

By the time my kids were 12, they had to stay up the whole night.

[sheryl]

After my dd suffered a seizure last year we took her to a neurologist. Long story short...we didn't care for the neurologist, so we switched.

 

Having experience with 2 neurologists I will say that each doctor may change the "times" a little bit..the length of time to be awake and the actual span of hours.

 

My dd's current neurologist who was trained at John Hopkins, has my dd doing it this way. Her normal bedtime is 8'ish.

 

~ We keep her AWAKE UP UNTIL 11:00 pm.

~ Sleeps from 11 pm - 2 am

~Wake at 2 and STAY AWAKE UNTIL APPT LATER THAT MORNING

 

My dd just had another sleep dep eeg about 2 months ago and she is improving!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

REMEMBER:

No caffeine day before/night of (tea, coffee, chocolate, etc). Yes, some parents give coffee to their kids.

 

Do NOT use shampoo/conditioners with proteins....child needs to wash hair before appt. Our dd took a shower/washed hair about 3 am as a means to wake up/stay awake. Surprisingly, my dh and I took shifts and our dd did WELL beyond expectations in staying awake.

 

HTH.

[JFSinIL]

ALl my kids have had at least one 18+ hour EEG, unmedicated. We'd go to the doc's office and the tech. would glue the kids heads up, then wrap them up with gauze, plug in the fanny pack with the recorder, and off we'd go. The next day we'd go back to have the stuff removed.

 

The first couple EEGs were done in hospital - doc. switched to ambulatory Digitrace readings since so many kids slept better at home, and the hospital was getting tired of space taken up by all his patients each week (he is a world-reknown pediatric neuro, one of the few looking for EEG abnormalities in kids with autism, among other things.)

 

He was looking, in my kids, for activity in the deep sleep cycles.

[Quiver0f10]

After my dd suffered a seizure last year we took her to a neurologist. Long story short...we didn't care for the neurologist, so we switched.

 

Having experience with 2 neurologists I will say that each doctor may change the "times" a little bit..the length of time to be awake and the actual span of hours.

 

My dd's current neurologist who was trained at John Hopkins, has my dd doing it this way. Her normal bedtime is 8'ish.

 

~ We keep her AWAKE UP UNTIL 11:00 pm.

~ Sleeps from 11 pm - 2 am

~Wake at 2 and STAY AWAKE UNTIL APPT LATER THAT MORNING

 

My dd just had another sleep dep eeg about 2 months ago and she is improving!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

REMEMBER:

No caffeine day before/night of (tea, coffee, chocolate, etc). Yes, some parents give coffee to their kids.

 

Do NOT use shampoo/conditioners with proteins....child needs to wash hair before appt. Our dd took a shower/washed hair about 3 am as a means to wake up/stay awake. Surprisingly, my dh and I took shifts and our dd did WELL beyond expectations in staying awake.

 

HTH.

 

How is your DD doing!? I hope all is well with her and you! :grouphug:

[sheryl]

Hi Jean...

 

Yes, she's doing GREAT! Today marks about 5 1/2 months being seizure free. However, June/July we've seen some behavioral issues, but we are attributing this to experiencing my aunt pass away and attending a furneral. Difficult for a 9 yo.

 

I have your ds in my prayer journal. How is he doing? Have his seizures changed? Better/worse? How are you doing?

 

Hugs back to you and prayers!!!!

 

How is your DD doing!? I hope all is well with her and you! :grouphug:

[Quiver0f10]

Hi Jean...

 

Yes, she's doing GREAT! Today marks about 5 1/2 months being seizure free. However, June/July we've seen some behavioral issues, but we are attributing this to experiencing my aunt pass away and attending a furneral. Difficult for a 9 yo.

 

I have your ds in my prayer journal. How is he doing? Have his seizures changed? Better/worse? How are you doing?

 

Hugs back to you and prayers!!!!

 

Fantastic at the 5 1/2 months mark! I am sorry to hear @ your loss though :(

 

My Ds is doing well and hasn't had another seizure that we know of. He goes for a repeat eeg on Thursday and sees the neuro the same day. He seems to be well adjusted to his meds and is moving along well in his therapies.

 

Take care!

[sheryl]

There are 2 kinds of eeg:

 

1. sleep deprived which I referred to in an earlier post

2. ambulatory eeg (the appt is usually in afternoon. Tech connects hardware...electrodes, and child wears backpack/fannypack with monitor inside. No special instructions. The child wears this unit every second from when they leave the dr office....to bed (no shower obviously) and wakes up with it on). Upon waking your child goes in to office to have them remove it.

 

Our neurologist allows us to remove the electrodes as a head start to getting all this off of her.

[sheryl]

WONDERFUL that ds is doing so well. Keep me posted. With prayers,

Sheryl

 

 

quote=Quiver0f10;380713]Fantastic at the 5 1/2 months mark! I am sorry to hear @ your loss though :(

 

My Ds is doing well and hasn't had another seizure that we know of. He goes for a repeat eeg on Thursday and sees the neuro the same day. He seems to be well adjusted to his meds and is moving along well in his therapies.

 

Take care!

[sheryl]

WONDERFUL that ds is doing so well. Keep me posted. With prayers,

Sheryl

 

 

quote=Quiver0f10;380713]Fantastic at the 5 1/2 months mark! I am sorry to hear @ your loss though :(

 

My Ds is doing well and hasn't had another seizure that we know of. He goes for a repeat eeg on Thursday and sees the neuro the same day. He seems to be well adjusted to his meds and is moving along well in his therapies.

 

I just posted this in the wrong area I guess....typing in the dark doesn't help. :glare:

 

 

Fantastic at the 5 1/2 months mark! I am sorry to hear @ your loss though :(

 

My Ds is doing well and hasn't had another seizure that we know of. He goes for a repeat eeg on Thursday and sees the neuro the same day. He seems to be well adjusted to his meds and is moving along well in his therapies.

 

Take care!

[abbeyej]

Ds had one when he was six. I only had to keep him up till midnight or so, and he fell asleep on his own during the test. With an older kid, I can see why they would want to keep them up later or even all night... But I think the reason you got different answers was probably because it doesn't matter so much *exactly* how little sleep they get as that they're tired and relaxed when it comes time for the test. For ds, it was a special night -- we went out to a bookstore that was open till eleven, then went and had a midnight snack at an all-night diner, and came home and played some board games.

 

The test itself was super easy. Getting hooked up to all the wires was the biggest part...

[Holly IN]

I didn't read the replies. I am shocked they actually told you he can sleep from midnight to 3. They told me I had to keep my dd up from 10 until we go in. She can go to sleep in the evening but had to be woken up at 10 and kept up all night. It was not fun at all but I did get alot of movies for her and snacks so we stayed up all night and had fun :glare:.

 

This was 6 years ago though so maybe things have changed?? If he doesn't go to sleep then they will ask you to come back again. He only needs to sleep for about 5 mins. As long as he is sleeping for 5 min then it will be a good test. If no sleep at all then you will have to return.

 

I do recommend that you ask the neuro about the 24 eeg test. They did that with my dd and it was a much better results.

 

Holly

[King Alfred Academy]

I have had several of these and I was told to stay up all night. What I would do was maybe sleep from 10 pm to maybe 1 or so and then watch movies, read, cook, ect. That way I was really tired when I had my test. That worked well for me and actually found seizure activity as I was falling asleep and as I was asleep. If I had not been sleep deprived, they would not have been able to catch it.

[unsinkable]

There are 2 kinds of eeg:

 

1. sleep deprived which I referred to in an earlier post

2. ambulatory eeg (the appt is usually in afternoon. Tech connects hardware...electrodes, and child wears backpack/fannypack with monitor inside. No special instructions. The child wears this unit every second from when they leave the dr office....to bed (no shower obviously) and wakes up with it on). Upon waking your child goes in to office to have them remove it.

 

Our neurologist allows us to remove the electrodes as a head start to getting all this off of her.

 

 

My dd has also had a video EEG. They hooked her up to the EEG equipment and video taped her. They were able to see the physical actions/symptoms along w/the EEG readings.