Q: My 5 years old daughter shakes or has tremors after she falls asleep and then consistently through the night. This does not wake her up and does not make her tired in any way. Her mother has petit-mal epilepsy and is worried she has passed it on to her daughter. The tremors occur in her hands toes and legs. Do you have any idea what this is and is it something we should worry about? My daughter also suffered from a bout of febrile convulsion when she was 2 which hospitalised her for a week but has had no ill health since.

A:It is likely that your is having Benign Sleep Myoclonus or Sleep Jerks which are not epileptic in nature and are normal. If you wake her up immediately when she is jerking the movements should stop. A good quality EEG will help to confirm the diagnosis.