Factors Affecting Insomnia and Excessive Daytime Sleepiness in Epilepsy Patients

The aim of the study was to determine the prevalence of sleep disorders in patients with epilepsy (PWE), and to determine whether anxiety and epilepsy characteristics influence sleep disorders. A cross-sectional study involved 46 adult PWE (aged 21 to 73 years). Self-reported subjective sleep disturbance (SSD) was present in 72.0% of cases. Insomnia was found in 76.1% of PWE using the Athens Insomnia Scale (AIS). Excessive daytime sleepiness (EDS) was present in 32.6% of patients, according to the Epworth Sleepiness Scale (ESS). The Generalised Anxiety Disorder 7-item scale (GAD-7) revealed anxiety symptoms in 65.2% of PWE. An association was found between moderate to severe insomnia and epilepsy type (p = 0.038). Moderate to severe insomnia was present in 31% of respondents with focal epilepsy, compared with 66.7% of patients in the generalised epilepsy group and 75.0% in the unknown epilepsy group, indicating milder insomnia in focal epilepsy. SSD were more common in patients with seizure frequency more than once a year than in patients with seizures less than once a year (p = 0.001). A correlation was found between GAD-7 and ESS scores, Pearson’s correlation coefficient = 0.478, p < 0.001. The proportion of patients who self-reported sleep disturbance (72.0%) was close to the prevalence of insomnia determined by the AIS (76.1%) (p = 0.81), showing that SSD in PWE has a high diagnostic value. It was found that the severity of insomnia varies in patients with different types of epilepsy.