Why Biting Your Tongue In Your Sleep Could Be A Serious Warning Sign

We're all familiar with the surge of white hot pain that radiates through your mouth when you unexpectedly bite down on your tongue. Made up of delicate nerve and muscle fibers with four different types of taste buds sprawled across its surface, the tongue is highly attuned to sensory stimuli, explains Houston Methodist. Every so often, you might accidentally sink your teeth into your tongue while chewing, talking, or doing a combination of the two. While not always cause for concern, there are cases in which biting your tongue could be a sign of a seizure disorder if it regularly occurs during sleep, reports Healthline.

Known as nocturnal seizures, the involuntary contraction or weakening of muscles that characterizes the condition most often occurs just after falling asleep, prior to waking up, or a little after waking (via Cedars Sinai). While the cause of nighttime seizures isn't always clear, it stems from abnormal electrical brain activity, and tongue biting is one of the primary symptoms. People with the condition may also be unable to control their bladder or experience increases in frequency of daytime seizures due to interrupted sleep at night.

People with certain types of seizure disorders may be more prone to nocturnal seizures. Cedars Sinai explains that this includes, but is not limited to, frontal lobe epilepsy, juvenile myoclonic epilepsy, or awakening tonic-clonic seizures (also referred to as grand mal seizures). It's the sides and the tip of the tongue that are most often bit during nighttime seizures (via Healthline). 

If you experience this potential warning sign, it's important to consult with your doctor about treatment methods. Findings of a 2017 study published as "Epilepsia" suggests that people with nocturnal seizures are more susceptible to sudden unexpected death in epilepsy (SUDEP) due to severe drops in oxygen levels (hypoxia) and suppressions in brain activity that take place after the seizure. These patients are over twice as likely to experience SUDEP than individuals who solely experience seizures during the daytime, and are at least twenty times more vulnerable than the general population. In order to safely intervene, it's important to recognize the signs of seizures in both children and adults.

To confirm a diagnosis of nocturnal seizures, patients will need to undergo a sleep study where hospital staff can monitor brain activity overnight (via Cedars Sinai). In addition to determining the type, frequency, and severity of seizures experienced, doctors will also need to take into account the patient's age and medical history when deciding on the proper form of treatment. Medication is often prescribed along with recommended healthy habits, such as prioritizing sleep and sticking to the ketogenic diet. Cleveland Clinic experts explain that the keto diet involves low sugar intake with high fat intake, which impacts brain activity in a way that minimizes seizures. If medication is ineffective, a vagus nerve stimulator (VNS) may additionally be surgically inserted into the chest to send electrical signals to the brain. 

The pain of biting your tongue may be fleeting, but it can result in complications, including the development of a scalloped tongue (via Healthline). MedicineNet explains that this occurs when sleep apnea, hypothyroidism, or other health conditions cause the outer edges of the muscle to become ridged, which can also be the result of continuous tongue biting. In the event of fever, swelling, excessive bleeding, or signs of infection that develop after biting your tongue, head to the nearest emergency room.