While several confounding factors (anti-seizure medications, depression and anxiety disorders, cognitive impairment) may partly account for these changes, some observations suggest an effect of seizures themselves on dreams. The content of dreams is also disturbed in epilepsy patients, being more negative and with more familiar settings.
The frequency of dream recall is indeed decreased in patients with epilepsy, especially in those with primary generalized seizures. Epilepsy is therefore likely to influence dreaming as one sleep-related cognitive activity. The interactions between epilepsy and sleep are numerous and the impact of epilepsy on cognition is well documented.
Aurélien de la Chapelle 1 Birgit Frauscher 2 Amandine Valomon 1 Perrine Marie Ruby 1† Laure Peter-Derex 1,3*†
