Australian doctors have found a new link between epilepsy and obstructive sleep apnoea, a condition where patients stop breathing at night.
Professor Terry O'Brien from the Royal Melbourne Hospital says there has been some evidence from other studies that patients with epilepsy may have an increased incidence of sleep-disordered breathing.
Professor O'Brien says there are similar symptoms of daytime sleepiness and fatigue between the two conditions.
He says patients with epilepsy can gain weight as a result of their medications, something that increases their risk of sleep-disordered breathing.
"We put two and two together and thought we should look into this," he said.
Doctors recruited 87 patients with epilepsy and monitored them in a sleep unit.
They found 25 per cent had significant sleep-disordered breathing that was severe enough to require treatment.
In the general population, the prevalence of sleep-disordered breathing is 3 to 7 per cent.
Awake for up to three days straight
Thirty-six-year-old Daniel Goldstein had always had strange sleeping habits, which included rocking back and forth during the night while he slept.
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Doctors find epilesy and sleep apnoea link