[Five cases of paroxysmal sleep disturbances]

Five cases with paroxysmal disturbances occurring during sleep were presented. The diagnosis of epilepsy was made in 3 cases and the diagnosis of non-epilepsy was made in 2 cases. The latter 2 cases had been treated as epilepsy. Clinical differences were not apparent on ictal manifestations between the epileptic and non-epileptic paroxysmal sleep disturbances. Seizures on awakening, which were noticed in only the epileptic cases, appeared 1 to 10 months later than sleep seizures. Final diagnosis was based on ictal EEG. Slow wave bursts were followed by alpha activity in non-epileptic cases. In epileptic cases, EEG revealed frontal dominant localized spike discharges which spread around in 2 cases and fast wave discharges in 1 cases.