Can you be in an extended episode without the many weeks of the sleeping phase. An example my son gets very irritability, lack of concentration. During his episodes he always gets headaches and his eyes hurt. He will always have different events with his episodes such as stomach pains, numbness to his hands, dizziness and currently he breaks out in a rash hive like, red burning rash for no reason. He seems to be in an episode without the deep sleep phase. He spends weekends sleeping, nights sleeping. In the sleeping phase he will usually sleep 2 weeks to 12 weeks sometimes longer.  One other point during his episodes he would frequently break up with his then girlfriend of course not remembering when he awakens. Currently he is thinking and saying he doesn’t want to be with her, his now wife. We question him if he could be in an episode with a response “I don’t know.” I would appreciate any input, not knowing where to get any answers.

To answer ur immediate question…most definitely yes.  There r many times I have been in an episode n functioned doing things that I either do not recall or barely recall. I would sleep at every possible moment in-between my actions too. Typically I was combative, non compliant, n down right belligerent.  These episodes seemingly mark a long sleep coming. I can barely recall this time I almost got arrested for causing a seen in a grocery store where I had given the clerk $5 n she gave me my change but I processed having given her $50.  I can also remember going to a bank on this same day to get a non existent lottery ticket that I had placed in a non existent safe deposit box n when I get to the bank I do not have a key n the bank does not have record. So I call a friend that I had not spoken to in prolly 5 years to see if she had my non existent key. By the way this was at least 15 years before I was diagnosed when everyone thought I was either on drugs, demonic, or just plain off my rocker.

Mine u I raised my son with these episodes.  There r about 4 years of his elementary school life that I do not recall n I drove him to school. He had perfect attendance until 8th grade.  He said that I would wake him up n go to the bathroom. Then I would sleep on the toilet. I would wake up about an hour later m go to the car n sleep for another hour until he came to the car. I’d drive him to school n I would sleep at the Days Inn a few blocks away. Sometimes I would pick him up n sometimes I would tell him to walk their n get me. We’d go home later that night n start over the next day.  I was blessed in so many ways.

You have described my son as well. The only difference is that his legs & back cause him problems-  not his hands & he doesn’t get the hives. I am beginning to think that he is still asleep during these combative episodes, but is able to function in a sort of sleepwalking/talking mode. During the times when he’s really awake he can’t remember any of the events that took place during these episodes. The other thing we’ve noticed is that his discussions will sometimes be extensions of dreams. He’ll share ideas like NASA found alien life forms living in anthrax&  debate & fight with you until you agree with him. Or he’ll start petting the bottom of his fleece pajama bottoms and talk to his foot as if it’s our cat. All of this with his eyes wide open.

These are not uncommon stories - episodes vary on the amount of sleep - I always refer to it has “how deep” the episode was, but the amount of time actually spent sleeping definitely varied.  I would say as a patient these episodes were much worse - they seemed way longer even though all my episodes were pretty much 14 days +/-1-2 days.  During these I had all of the other symptoms but just seemed to be more awake.  This was also harder for others to understand as well - as I seemed to look ok - although my friends and family would say that I still had the “dead eyes” - open but not really comprehending.

Our Son’s Sleep Pattern while on his current meds has shortten the time he sleeps in a prolonged state but he still has the problem of going around in a daze in fact he unfortunately has been tested during this time and his IQ is quite lower before the sleep patterns along with the agressive eating .