[Seizures recorded upon awakening in the child: diagnostic difficulties].

We describe the EEG patterns and the clinical modifications of spontaneous awakening in 34 infants and children. An "awakening seizure" could be confirmed in 27 children, including 18 with various epilepsies and 9 infants with West syndrome. In other 7 children, the analysis of the tracing could not conclude whether or not the pathological awakening patterns were critical. The frequency of seizures occurring with awakening in various epileptic syndromes might be underestimated: it rated 18% in our series of 150 children with a recorded seizure in a two years period. Since the EEG patterns occurring with awakening have been poorly studied in epileptic children, it may be difficult to distinguish a pathological arousal from an "awakening seizure".