summary: The brain may mistakenly treat seizures as important memories to save. Groundbreaking research suggests that after a seizure, the brain enters a deep sleep state that mimics memory consolidation. This “seizure-related reinforcement” strengthens the neural pathways that cause seizures, essentially training the brain to have seizures more frequently.
The findings identify a critical period after a seizure – the first few hours after a seizure and at night – and reveal that targeted medical intervention may disrupt this harmful “learning” process and halt the progression of epilepsy.
important facts
- Involuntary learning: After a seizure, the brain uses the same biological processes that store memories to instead strengthen the seizure network.
- Enhanced deep sleep: Recordings from implanted brain devices showed that the night after a seizure was characterized by longer and more intense non-REM sleep (deep sleep), particularly in the area where the seizure began.
- REM tradeoffs: Although deep sleep increases, REM sleep (essential for emotional and cognitive health) decreases significantly after an attack.
- Disease progression: This “hijack” of memory consolidation explains why epilepsy often worsens over time, and why memory and mood problems are common comorbidities.
- Bionic Initiative: The findings support a new “closed-loop” brain stimulation therapy that can detect seizures and intervene during sleep, weakening rather than strengthening seizure networks.
sauce: mayo clinic
A new study from the Mayo Clinic suggests that the brain can inadvertently “learn” about seizures by treating them like important memories to save.
This study neuroscience journalfound that after a seizure, the brain enters a deep sleep state that mimics memory storage, and this effect can last into the next night’s sleep. In effect, this “stores” the path of the attack and strengthens the disease, like a normal memory.
The findings suggest new opportunities to prevent worsening of epilepsy by targeting brain activity in the hours immediately following a seizure and during subsequent nighttime sleep, a critical time when harmful brain changes can occur.
“Sleep is one of the brain’s most powerful tools for learning and memory,” says Dr. Vaclav Klemen, a neuroscientist and engineer at the Mayo Clinic and lead author of the study. “What we’re seeing is that after a seizure, the brain may not be engaging in the same biological processes used to consolidate memories, but rather strengthening the networks that cause the seizure.”
Epilepsy affects an estimated 50 million people worldwide, and many patients continue to have seizures despite medication. Understanding the relationship between seizures and sleep may help explain why epilepsy worsens over time and why problems with memory, mood, and sleep are common in people with epilepsy.
The study analyzed long-term brain recordings from implanted devices in 11 patients with epilepsy. The researchers used these recordings to compare sleep patterns on the night after an attack with sleep patterns on nights without a recent attack.
They found that after a seizure, the brain consistently entered a long, enhanced, deep sleep state known as non-rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep. During this period, slow brain waves became stronger and steeper, especially within specific brain areas where seizures occur. This is an important feature of memory consolidation.
At the same time, rapid eye movement (REM) sleep, which is important for emotional processing and cognitive health, was reduced. On average, patients slept longer and had more deep sleep after an attack, but they had less REM sleep compared to a night without an attack.
Researchers call this process seizure-related stiffening, a phenomenon in which seizures appear to hijack the brain’s normal learning mechanisms. Rather than helping the brain recover, this post-ictal sleep state can strengthen abnormal neural circuits, creating a vicious cycle in which each seizure increases the likelihood of future seizures.
“Rather than treating seizures as isolated events, this study shows that seizures can actively shape the brain in ways that promote disease progression,” says Dr. Klemen.
Importantly, the findings show that there may be new therapeutic opportunities in the hours and night after an attack, when targeted interventions can disrupt this harmful learning process.
“If we can safely intervene during this post-ictal period, we may be able to weaken rather than strengthen seizure networks,” says Gregory Worrell, MD, a Mayo Clinic neurologist and senior author of the study.
These insights support Mayo Clinic’s Bioelectronic Neuromodulation Innovations (BIONIC) initiative, which aims to devise personalized neuromodulatory therapies to prevent, treat, and potentially reverse neurological diseases.
This study highlights the potential of bioelectronic approaches to promote healthier brain function by combining long-term brain sensing, advanced analytics, and an understanding of how the brain adapts after a seizure.
Future research will focus on applying these findings to bionic-enabled therapies, such as adaptive closed-loop brain stimulation systems designed to respond in real time to seizure and sleep states. Mayo Clinic researchers have already begun designing next-generation approaches aimed at breaking this cycle and restoring normal brain activity.
Answers to key questions:
answer: In a biological sense, yes. The brain does not distinguish between useful skills and harmful attacks. It observes the intense neural activity during a seizure and “saves” that pathway during the next night’s sleep, much like a new vocabulary or piano piece is stored.
answer: It’s not just physical fatigue. The brain is literally forcing itself into an enhanced deep sleep state to “enhance” seizure activity. This study shows that the brain spends more time in non-REM sleep after a seizure, often at the expense of restorative REM sleep.
answer: That’s the goal. By identifying this post-ictal sleep window, doctors hope to use personalized brain stimulation (neuromodulation) to “disrupt” the consolidation process and prevent seizure networks from becoming stronger.
Editorial note:
- This article was edited by the editors of Neuroscience News.
- Journal articles were reviewed in full text.
- Additional context added by staff.
About this epilepsy and sleep research news
author: emily deboom
sauce: mayo clinic
contact: Emily DeBoom – Mayo Clinic
image: Image credited to Neuroscience News
Original research: Closed access.
“Postictal sleep changes in human focal epilepsyWritten by Vaclav Klemen, Vladimir Sladky, Vaclav Gerla, Yului Kao, Philip Miwald, Eric K. St. Louis, Mark R. Bower, Ben Brinkman, Kai Miller, Jamie Van Gompel, Mark Cook, Tim Dennison, Kent Reid, and Gregory A. Worrell. neuroscience journal
DOI:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0303-25.2026
abstract
Postictal sleep changes in human focal epilepsy
The bidirectional interactions between sleep, seizures, and epilepsy remain incompletely understood. Evidence from animal models and patients with focal epilepsy suggests that seizures may engage mechanisms of memory consolidation during postictal sleep, strengthening and strengthening synaptic connections within the pathological network that triggers seizures, termed seizure-related consolidation (SRC).
However, human studies of postictal sleep changes that support SRC are limited by small sample sizes and limited observations of postictal sleep. We investigated the interaction between seizures and sleep by analyzing sleep-wake and seizure catalogs obtained from continuous local field potential (LFP) recordings in 11 patients (6 men, 5 women) with drug-resistant focal epilepsy implanted with a novel investigational device and living in their natural environment.
Our findings show that postictal rapid eye movement sleep duration decreases, whereas slow-wave sleep duration, slow-wave LFP spectral power and waveform slope increase compared with interictal nights not preceded by an attack. The most important changes were localized in the epileptogenic network that drives habitual seizures in participants.
These results reveal similarities between SRC and physiological memory consolidation, provide new insights into the potential role of postictal sleep in strengthening neural engrams in epilepsy, and may influence targeted disruption of postictal sleep and SRC in focal epilepsy.
