Patient Education

Seizure safety & planning

Seizures are hard to predict, but you can plan for them. This page gathers free tools for building a seizure action plan, tracking seizures, caring for the everyday habits that affect them — like sleep and stress — and thinking through whether a seizure alert device makes sense. These materials are for people living with seizures and for the family, friends, and caregivers who support them.

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One of the hardest parts of living with seizures is not knowing when the next one will happen. Planning ahead puts some of that control back in your hands. A seizure action plan (often called a SAP) is a simple form that tells the people around you what your seizures look like, what to do when one happens, what medicines you take, and when to call 911. Once it is filled out, family members, friends, coworkers, and teachers do not have to guess in the moment — they can follow steps you and your care team wrote down ahead of time.

A good action plan is a team effort. Fill in what you know, then ask the provider who manages your epilepsy to help with the rest — especially sections about rescue medicines and when a seizure needs emergency help. The Epilepsy Foundation recommends that you and your provider both sign the finished plan, that you share copies with the people who need to know, keep one with you, and review it at least once a year or whenever your seizures or treatment change.

Tracking your seizures matters just as much as planning for them. A written diary or calendar helps you and your care team spot patterns: how often seizures happen, what they look like, how long they last, and what may have triggered them — things like missed medicines, poor sleep, stress, illness, or hormonal changes. For family and caregivers, learning what to watch for before, during, and after a seizure turns a frightening moment into useful information your doctor can act on.

Day-to-day wellness is part of seizure safety too. The Epilepsy Foundation notes that not getting enough good-quality sleep and having too much stress are common seizure triggers for many people, and that anxiety and depression happen more often in people with epilepsy — about 1 in 3 may have difficulties with one of them at some point. Caring for your sleep, stress, and emotional health is not separate from caring for your epilepsy; they work together. The factsheets below offer practical, everyday steps, and they are written for caregivers as well, whose own rest and well-being matter just as much.

Finally, some families consider a seizure alert device — a monitoring system that can detect that a seizure may be happening and notify someone who can respond. These devices can be helpful, but they do not prevent, diagnose, or treat seizures, no device detects every seizure type, and they are not known to prevent SUDEP (sudden unexpected death in epilepsy). The guide below walks through honest questions to ask — about your seizure types, living situation, cost, and privacy — so you can talk it over with your care team and decide what fits your life.

The materials

Everything below is free. These summaries are for general education — always talk with your own care team about what applies to you.

  • Seizure Action Plan (fillable form)The Epilepsy Foundation's general-use fillable form for recording your seizure types, daily and rescue medicines, first aid steps (Stay. Safe. Side.), and when to call 911 versus your provider. Fill it out with your care team, sign it together, and share copies with the people around you.
  • Seizure Action Plan for AdultsAn adult-focused action plan that explains what a SAP is, why it helps, and how to use it — plus a detailed fillable form covering emergency contacts, medications, devices, first aid, and when to seek emergency help. Includes tips like keeping a copy in your wallet and reviewing the plan yearly.
  • More Seizure Action Plan templates (SeizureActionPlans.org)A collection of action plan templates from several epilepsy organizations, so you can pick the format that fits you best — including plans for children, for functional (non-epileptic) seizures, and a tip sheet for saving your plan on an iPhone. Spanish-language versions are available, along with translations in Simplified Chinese, Korean, Tagalog, Vietnamese, and Ukrainian.
  • My Seizure Event DiaryA one-page checklist for recording a single seizure in detail — awareness, movements, speech, falls, recovery time, rescue medicine given, and possible triggers. Check off what you saw, one column per event, and bring it to appointments.
  • My Seizure CalendarA printable monthly calendar for logging how often each type of seizure happens, with space to note triggers like missed medicines, sleep changes, stress, or illness, and to track the menstrual cycle. Over time it helps you and your care team see patterns.
  • Tips for Seizure Observation & RecordingA guide for family and caregivers on what to watch for before, during, and after a seizure — behavior changes, possible triggers, movements, which side of the body is involved, and how long each phase lasts. Writing these details down soon after the event gives the doctor information they cannot see in the office.
  • Wellness and Epilepsy ToolkitThe Epilepsy Foundation's full toolkit on living well with epilepsy, covering physical activity, sleep, diet and nutrition, stress, emotional health, social relationships, independent living, school and work, and caregiver well-being. Includes practical goal-setting advice for making small, lasting changes.
  • Sleep factsheetExplains how closely sleep and epilepsy are connected — poor sleep is a common seizure trigger, and seizures and some medicines can disturb sleep in return. Offers everyday tips for better sleep, guidance for caregivers, and advice on when to talk to your provider about a possible sleep problem.
  • Stress Management factsheetCovers why stress matters for people with epilepsy — it can trigger seizures for many people, and living with unpredictable seizures is stressful in itself. Offers practical coping strategies, from breathing and exercise to journaling, support groups, and knowing when to seek professional help.
  • Emotional Health factsheetExplains how epilepsy can affect mood and emotions, why anxiety and depression are more common in people with epilepsy, and how some seizure medicines can affect mood. Encourages treating an emotional check-up like a physical one, with steps for patients and caregivers and where to find help.
  • Considering a Seizure Alert DeviceA question-by-question guide from the Epilepsy Foundation and the Danny Did Foundation for deciding whether a seizure alert device fits your needs — covering seizure types it can detect, living situation, cost and insurance, false alerts, privacy, and an honest discussion of what devices can and cannot do, including SUDEP.