Sleep deprivation and melatonin for inducing sleep in paediatric electroencephalography: a prospective multicentre service evaluation

AIM: To compare the efficacy of the main methodologies in attaining sleep and electroencephalography (EEG) abnormalities in children with a view to producing recommendations on best practice. METHOD: Fifty-one UK centres participated. Methods for sleep induction (sleep deprivation, melatonin, and combined sleep deprivation/melatonin) were compared. Data pertaining to demographics, achievement of stage II sleep, and recording characteristics (duration of study, presence of epileptiform activity in awake/sleep states) were prospectively collected for consecutive patients in November and December 2013. RESULTS: Five hundred and sixty-five patients were included. Age range was 1 years to 17 years (mean 7y 10mo), 27.7 per cent had an underlying neurobehavioural condition. Stage II sleep was achieved in 69 per cent of sleep deprived studies, 77 per cent of melatonin studies, and 90 per cent of combined intervention studies (p<0.001, χ2 ). In children who slept, there was no difference between the three interventions in eliciting epileptiform discharges. In children who did not sleep, epileptiform abnormalities were seen more often than after sleep deprivation alone (p=0.02, χ2 ). Seizures were rare. INTERPRETATION: Combined sleep deprivation/melatonin is more effective than either method alone in achieving sleep. The occurrence of epileptiform activity during sleep is broadly similar across the three groups. We recommend the combined intervention to induce sleep for paediatric EEG. What this paper adds Combined sleep deprivation/melatonin is more effective in achieving sleep than either sleep deprivation or melatonin alone. Sleep latency is shorter with combined sleep deprivation/melatonin. When children do sleep, there is no difference in the occurrence of epileptiform abnormalities between different induction methods. Seizures are rare in sleep electroencephalography recordings.