Temporal distribution of clinical seizures over the 24-h day: a retrospective observational study in a tertiary epilepsy clinic.

Purpose: Very few studies have evaluated seizure occurrence in humans over the 24-h day; data from children are particularly scarce. Circadian patterns in seizure occurrence may be of importance in epilepsy research and may have important implications in diagnosis and therapy.

Methods: We have analyzed clinical seizures of 176 consecutive patients (76 children, 100 adults) who had continuous electroencephalography (EEG) and video monitoring lasting more than 22 h.