Dear All
My wife, Connie has had Early Onset for the past 8 years or so, but over the last 3 years developed these atonic and tonic jerks. She is on both Memantine and Aricept. Last January she had full on seizure in the shower about 9.30am removing her humerus from the shoulder joint and crushing its head. She had major surgery which resulted in a new shoulder joint! She was then put on Sodium Valpreate, which was increased to 900mg per day,when the jerks got worse this year with her falling in a syncope kind of way. Because she was so restless at night I kept one or sometimes three lights on at night plus we would fall asleep on the chair and go to bed late and therefore had an odd pattern.
So after another epileptic fit on the 1st April, thankfully no damage that time, I have been keeping a closer record and decided to make a major change to our nocturnal habits. I have this theory that the pineal gland is the gland that stimulates the body to go to sleep at night as it produces Melatonin.
Now, a bit like the production of the flowering hormone Florigen in plants, I postulated that by keeping lights on I was preventing Connie producing melatonin naturally and therefore this probably triggers her jerks as they really only happen between 4.00am and 9.00am. So there had to be something happening at night or not.
Since keeping Connie in darkness for the last fortnight she has had hardly any jerks between those times and has not even looked like dropping on the floor. I have a sensor beside the bed which switch es on the TV when she sits up or calls out. The Toby baby one way walki talki keeps me informed of what is happening when I am working downstairs.
So does anybody else have the same experiences of jerks and epileptic fits with their loved ones and has anybody else done any research on the anti-convulsive properties of melatonin?? I have obviously done my own research on the net.
Thanks for reading this far!!
Jon Harris
South Croydon
My wife, Connie has had Early Onset for the past 8 years or so, but over the last 3 years developed these atonic and tonic jerks. She is on both Memantine and Aricept. Last January she had full on seizure in the shower about 9.30am removing her humerus from the shoulder joint and crushing its head. She had major surgery which resulted in a new shoulder joint! She was then put on Sodium Valpreate, which was increased to 900mg per day,when the jerks got worse this year with her falling in a syncope kind of way. Because she was so restless at night I kept one or sometimes three lights on at night plus we would fall asleep on the chair and go to bed late and therefore had an odd pattern.
So after another epileptic fit on the 1st April, thankfully no damage that time, I have been keeping a closer record and decided to make a major change to our nocturnal habits. I have this theory that the pineal gland is the gland that stimulates the body to go to sleep at night as it produces Melatonin.
Now, a bit like the production of the flowering hormone Florigen in plants, I postulated that by keeping lights on I was preventing Connie producing melatonin naturally and therefore this probably triggers her jerks as they really only happen between 4.00am and 9.00am. So there had to be something happening at night or not.
Since keeping Connie in darkness for the last fortnight she has had hardly any jerks between those times and has not even looked like dropping on the floor. I have a sensor beside the bed which switch es on the TV when she sits up or calls out. The Toby baby one way walki talki keeps me informed of what is happening when I am working downstairs.
So does anybody else have the same experiences of jerks and epileptic fits with their loved ones and has anybody else done any research on the anti-convulsive properties of melatonin?? I have obviously done my own research on the net.
Thanks for reading this far!!
Jon Harris
South Croydon