Abstract: Objective To explore the sleep characteristics of adult partial epilepsy patients. Methods 45 patients newly diagnosed as adult partial epilepsy and 40 cases of healthy controls were monitored with sleep encephalogram (EEG), the sleep parameters were analyzed.Epworth Sleepiness Scale (ESS) was used to evaluate the daytime sleepiness next day. The sleep parameters and ESS score were compared between 2 groups, and the correlation between sleep parameters and ESS score in the patients were analyzed. Results The ESS score was higher in the patients than in the controls (P<0.05); Compared with the controls, the total sleep time decreased (P<0.05), the sleep efficiency reduced (P<0.05), the percentage of non-rapid eye movement sleep (NREM) stages 1 and 2 and the wakefulness stage increased (P<0.05), the percentage of NREM stages 3 and 4 decreased (P<0.05) in the patients; There was no significant difference in total recording time, sleep latency, REM latency, and arousal times between the patients and the controls (P>0.05). The ESS score was higher in the patients who attacked 3 times a month or more (group A) than less than 3 (group B). Compared with group B, the total sleep time decreased (P<0.05), the sleep efficiency reduced (P<0.05), the percentage of NREM stages 1 and 2 and the wakefulness stage increased (P<0.05), the percentage of NREM stages 3 and 4, and REM decreased (P<0.05) in group A. There was no significant difference in sleep latency, REM latency and arousal times between 2 groups (P>0.05). The ESS score of the patients was negatively correlated with sleep efficiency (r=-0.49, P<0.05) and the percentage of NREM stages 3 and 4 (r=-0.54, P<0.05), and was not correlated with other sleep parameters (P>0.05). Conclusion The sleep architecture of patients with adult partial epilepsy is abnormal, and their daytime sleepiness is more than healthy persons. Epileptic seizure can aggravate sleep architecture abnormality and daytime sleepiness. Abnormal sleep parameters are related with ESS score.

Key words: adult partial epilepsy, Epworth Sleepiness Score, sleep encephalogram