The depth electrodes test: When a person takes this test they have to stay in the hospital for a month, 95% of that time in bed. After a person has there hair shaved off a brain surgeon marks specific points on a persons head and then drills tiny holes through their skull just deep enough to reach their brain then tiny electrodes are inserted into these holes. These electrodes are very sensitive to what is happening around them. The electrodes attached to wires that lead to a machine that is behind a persons head that records what is happening at all times. When a person has a seizure they press a button to inform the machine to record when a seizure is happening. When they are having an absence seizure or a person sitting next does that. Somebody is always sitting next to You. This is a long test, but it was worth it in the end. I finally got the answers I wanted, every eeg I had never worked. I hope that was enough info for You.

Actually You don't feel anything. The only thing that was annoying for me was how hot my head was. It is constantly wrapped, covered by gauze/fabric to keep things clean. Apart from that an occasional itch on the scalp can't be touched.

@A MyEpilepsyTeam Member Nicely put! When I went to my original neurologist for the very first time, I was sent home with an eeg recorder with electrodes glued to my head, and I made sure to use my known triggers (watched tape of me giving the best man speech at my friend's wedding). It produced the seizure that allowed the neurologist to see that it is a complex partial seizure (and whatever the medical profession chooses to call them now)--the most common type.

A few years later I had the deprived eeg.

Since then, every other year I have a simple eeg every other year to see how effective the medications are doing (and the blood tests to make sure that I do not have too much of any one medication in my system--this can trigger seizures too).

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A MyEpile...

☝🏼 What Bryan said. Exhaustion is a trigger for some people. They are of course trying to induce a seizure. They may also want to see what your brain activity is like when stressed, exhausted, etc when not having a seizure.

I know when i’m just going through stressful situations, anger, exhaustion, etc there is abnormal activity in my brain.

Since my seizures are only when I sleep, the only reason they kept me up was in hopes that I would be so exhausted that i’d have one when I finally went to sleep. It was difficult for me to reach that point as I stay up for 18-20 hours normally. The doctor didn’t want me to do that. Because he didn’t want that, it took almost a week for me to have a tonic-clonic

I hope, for you, that they find what they are looking for quickly and can let you get back back to being the best you you are.

I have done this 4 times now, the sleep deprivation never triggered a seizure for me but 2 of the times I did it they asked me to remain awake for 36 hours, the other 2 times they said if I can't remain awake for a full 36 hours then I can sleep for 4. Heads up... do not chew gum to keep you awake, I did that the first time and found out afterwards that you aren't supposed to do that! Make sure you've got lots of things to keep you busy but I found that after I passed the 24 hour mark and it became daylight it wasn't hard to remain awake