First I would recommend a Sony Camcorder with Night Shot. This will allow you to shoot in complete darkness because the Camcorder has an Infrared light that only it can see to shoot by. Lights have been known to affect epileptic seizures, the Infrared light should not have any affect. Next I would recommend that you get a Stand Alone DvD Recorder. One that has an extended record time of 6 to 8 hrs. Camcorders only record up to 2 hrs at best, some higher that have a built in Hard Drive or Flash Memory. By plugging the Camcorder in to the DvD recorder with the A/V (Audio Video Cables) you can record to the disk for the whole sleep period. As for shooting both sides at once. Try putting a Full Length Mirror horizontally on the opposite side of the Camcorder. Position the Camcorder so that it sees you on one side and your reflection in the mirror of your other side. Hope this helps.

The quality of any Camcorder will depend on the video chip. If it is a 1 or 3 chip and the type and size of chip. The next factor is Lens. Then comes recording format. Mini DV is a great, reliable medium. The new Flash based Camcorders, especially the HD models, are very light, small and shoot great quality video. Most of the HD models are recording in the AVCHD format, the same format used on the Hard Drive models. The benefits of the Flash medium are: Lighter, smaller, high storage capacity, you do not have to “re-capture” to the computer for edit, almost unlimited reuse (tapes wear out) and no video heads to get dirty.

If your camera charges the battery in the camera you can also consider a Universal Adapter available online at BestBuy.com
Sima - Universal AC Adapter
Model: SUP-60 | SKU: 7011994

Any of the Digital-SLR cameras should work well for you. Canon, Nikon, Olympus and Sony all have models under $600. As for software, many Image Editing programs have Mac versions. The image from the Camera is generally in the JPEG format and is directly transferable to both PC and MAC by a compatible Card Reader.