someone just posted on Latitudes that a neuro at John Hopkins is treating him for tic induced sleep apnoea
Seems he feels the tics cause depressed breathing???

neither my husband or son tic when asleep (most people dont, right?) altho they both do have sleep issues, my hubby more so than son.

I am interested in hearing if anyone here may have noticed a correlation

I found his message a little confusing actually. I understood from his message posted elsewhere that his doctors say he has a specific type of sleep apnea called Central sleep apnea (different from Obstructive Sleep Apnea).

All I know is that over the years I've come across quite a large number of people who have TS as well as sleep apnea but I guess that is Obstructive Sleep Apnea whereas this young man says he has Central Sleep Apnea.

He says his apnea is caused by irregular breathing which has been caused by his tics... That's how I read it. Is that how you read it? He also mentions hyperventilation and anxiety though and that he had abnormally low levels of CO2 at night.

So, is he saying that his pattern of breathing caused by his tics is causing his CO2 levels to be too low which in turn affects his brain which in turn causes the central sleep apnea?

It sounds like one of those 'what comes first? the chicken or the egg' situations to me, but I'm not too familiar with sleep apnea. Plus I have no idea if he has any other health issues, like heart problems or is taking some type of medication which might affect the brain's response.

I did come across a couple of old abstracts in PubMed when I looked but they don't make much sense to me at all. This one refers to Obstructive SA not the Central Sleep Apnea.


Am J Med Genet. 1993 Jun 15;46(5):494-6.
Is Tourette syndrome a cause of sudden infant death syndrome and childhood obstructive sleep apnea?
Sverd J, Montero G.

e.g. My comments...
1. What sort of survey?
2. Which TS gene is this? LOL This is written in 1993!!!
3. I don't think I've ever seen an abstract so bizarre. Well, maybe a few.

Other than that, I'm not sure I'm really understanding what's happening for the person who posted. I think he's really concerned that others have been misdiagnosed and consequently getting the wrong sort of treatment.

P.S. Yes, some people do tic in their sleep, Chemar. Years ago it was one of those things they used to use to rule out TS... if someone ticced in their sleep, but in more recent times, doctors have come to realize I guess that in fact it's not all that uncommon. I mean, it's not something someone can self-report about is it.

I don't have time to look at the more recent studies right now, but this was another study that came up when I searched PubMed for Sleep Apnea and Tourette's Syndrome... It's VERY OLD too, but here goes.
I know that Drs. Picchietti and Walters have done a lot of work in the area of Sleep disorders and TS, but not aware they've studied Sleep Apneas specifically. They're more onto the PLMD and RLS with TS.

Hi Lara
yes, I was a bit confused myself, which is why I asked here too

I asked my husband and we are wondering whether he does in fact have sleep apnoea and he is going to schedule some testing

Interesting re the tic in sleep Lara

My son tics a lot just before sleeping, but he doesnt appear to tic when asleep.

My husband is a very restless sleeper, and so catnaps thruout the day. He is fully a 24 hr person and thankfully has been able to work his life around that.

I haven't read the post by this young man but it makes me think about the recent work with sleep disturbances and ADHD (OK.....here I go free associating ). With all of the ADHD comorbids that we see it does make you wonder about the issue/role of sleep disturbance.

My older son had many night terrors as a child but seems to sleep like a rock now that he's 17.

Interesting.

Take care,
Tessa

sorry
I realised I didnt post a link to the actual discussion that triggered my interest in this

Hi there --

My younger son, 9, has been using a bipap for years because of his collapsing airway and apnea with great results.

Our older son, nearly 12, is being treated for bipolar disorder and tourettes. His t.s. presents as facial grimacing and vocal tics. He had been telling us that he has been waking up at night trying to catch his breath. And because of behaviors consistent with his diagnosis, we really couldn't tell if he was actually sleep disturbed or not -- nothing was obvious as it was with our younger boy.

Last night he had his sleep study. I stayed in the same room as he and if I hadn't been there, I wouldn't have believed what he experienced. He woke up nearly hyperventilating several times. Once he went into t.s. type "grunting". It was unreal. I have a little hop that if we can now address this night issue we can improve the quality of his daily life.

Has anyone else had any experience with sleep apnea/disorder and tourettes?

Thanks,
Julie

Hi Julie
nice to meet you

very interesting info from you there. Definitely an area I am going to be investigating more deeply.

as an aside, since we got a humidifier (aka vaporizer) my husband is sleeping MUCH better

Hi - I got rid of my night terrors and my sleep apnea, which was in its initial state and undiagnosed, when i stopped all dairy- so, is it the sugar , the protein, an allergy? I feel strongly that those with apnea should stop dairy- but noone i have told this to seems to take note.