The enforced nap: a simple effective method of inducing sleep activation in epileptics

The authors routinely carry out sleep activation in suspected cases of epilepsy when the EEG performed in the waking state gives insufficient data. The technique used, referred to as 'the forced nap', allows the induction of 60 min sleep in 80% of all subjects and 90% of those under 16 years of age. This method gives results comparable with (and probably better than) those obtained by EEG recording after 24 h sleep deprivation, but is much simpler to carry out and can be used by all hospital-based EEG laboratories. The widespread use of this method should allow to change the current situation. It was found that more than 50% of hospital-based EEG laboratories do not perform sleep activation, and the remaining centers restrict this technique to a very limited number of patients, thus depriving almost all epileptics of an effective diagnostic tool.