logo estivill sleep clinic
APPOINTMENT

Myoclonus
Sleep pathology in adults and children

Definition

It is a sleep disorder characterized by brief involuntary muscle contractions during sleep.

These contractions may be very mild and unnoticed by the person experiencing them, or they may be strong enough to awaken the individual or their partner and cause insomnia.

Nocturnal myoclonus can affect any muscle group, but most commonly affects the muscles of the legs, feet, arms, and torso.

It is more common to find this type of pathology among older people, although with children with the presence of a dream with fractions (awakenings), they should always be suspected.

Symptoms
It is an alteration consisting of sudden myoclonic jerks of the extremities, lasting 1 to 5 seconds, which appear every 20-40 seconds in the form of outbreaks, throughout the night, causing the patient to wake up and change sleep phases. . As a result, during the day they feel tired, as if they had only slept a few hours. In children, daytime symptoms are less evident, although poor rest can cause daytime irritability problems. These discharges can occur in both limbs and also in one leg. The most characteristic movement is dorsiflexion of the foot, combined with partial flexion of the knee and leg.
Causes
The disorder may be idiopathic, meaning there is no known cause, or it may be related to other medical conditions such as the end of apnea. In children it is common when there are hematological disorders (low iron in the blood).
Diagnosis

You must always control the analysis of:

  • Ferritin, iron (II+III),
  • Total iron fixing capacity,
  • Latent iron binding capacity
  • Transferrin saturation index.

The objective diagnosis is made through polysomnography, when there are at least 5 jerks per hour of sleep, each of them followed by an awakening. This “awakening” (arousal) is not always a wakefulness, but can simply be a change in the phases of sleep, (from deeper to more superficial), which gives rise to division and is a cause of discomfort the next day.

Myoclonus is recorded during the sleep study, using motion sensors placed on the patient’s tibialis anterior (leg) muscles.

Treatment
Treatment of nocturnal myoclonus depends on the underlying cause and severity of symptoms. If there is iron deficiency, it is advisable to provide iron supplements. When it is idiopathic, it can only be symptomatic with drugs. Some treatment options may include improving sleep hygiene, treating underlying medical conditions, behavioral therapy such as the use of relaxation techniques, and muscle control techniques.