Evaluation of the sleep status of children with epilepsy and the life and sleep quality levels of their parents

Epilepsy is the most common neurological disease in childhood. In addition to being life-threatening, it also brings sleep problems. It can be seen that children with epilepsy have a decrease in sleep quality and, as a result, a decrease in parents' sleep and life quality. This, in turn, causes parents who have high concerns about where, when and how their children will have seizures, making it even more stressful in their approach to children and reducing the efficiency of epilepsy treatment. In our study, children with epilepsy and the control group were compared in terms of sleep quality. The differences in the quality of life and sleep of the parents of the children in the case and control groups were compared. 67 children with seizure diagnosis and a control group of 67 people were included in the study. The Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), Adult Quality of Life Scale (SF-36) and Children's Sleep Scale (CIS) were administered to the case group and control group. The mean age of the case group was 11.67±3,38 years. The most common type of seizure is generalized tonic-clonic seizure. It was determined that the sleep quality of the patient group decreased compared to the control group, and the parents of children with epilepsy had a decrease in the quality of life and sleep compared to the control group. It is extremely important in the treatment of the disease that the parents have sufficient information about the importance of the sleep quality of their children in order to control the seizures. Taking into account the quality of life and sleep of the parents, the implementation of family-centered epilepsy treatments will contribute to more successful management of the disease. Keywords: Seizure, Sleep, Life, Epilepsy, Sleep Quality, Life Quality