SUDEP Risk Factors: The List, Plus the Night

By Dovy Paukstys, Founder, Komori Care

This article is educational and is not medical advice. It does not diagnose, treat, prevent, or cure any condition. Komori is not a medical device, is not FDA-cleared, does not detect seizures, and is not intended for people with epilepsy. Talk with a neurologist or epileptologist about personal medical decisions. Households living with epilepsy should use clinically validated seizure-detection devices as directed by their care team.

Risk-factor pages read like a grocery list. You want to know which items you can actually do something about.

I don't have epilepsy. I am not going to rank this list as if a consumer gadget moves a person from one column to another. The Epilepsy Foundation already published the list. This page attributes it to them, then stays on the piece most summaries treat as a footnote: how the body is lying when the house is dark.

If you need the definition first, use What SUDEP Is and Is Not. If you landed here from "warning signs," start at warning signs of SUDEP. Those are not the same page.

The list, in their language

The Foundation's greatest named risk factor is tonic-clonic seizures. They still use "grand mal" in parentheses so older charts match.

People with nighttime seizures may also be at higher risk.

Missing medications, or not taking seizure medicines as prescribed, can lead to more seizures. That may raise SUDEP risk.

People with poorly controlled epilepsy sit at greater risk than people whose seizures are controlled. The Foundation's public line is that the best way to lower SUDEP risk is to have as few seizures as possible.

They also say people who have only absence or myoclonic seizures are not known to have increased risk for sudden death. That cut belongs to a clinician. Do not self-sort from a blog.

On the same page they list ordinary ways to lower risk by aiming for fewer seizures. Take medicine regularly and at the right dose. See the care team if seizures are not controlled. Ask about surgery, devices, or dietary therapy when medicine is not enough. Know seizure first aid. Be careful around water. Those are their steps. They are clinic and household work. They are not a product category.

Their FAQ on children is equally careful. Whether a child is at risk depends on how severe the epilepsy is and the type of seizures. Some studies found lower rates in children. Others found rates similar to adults. A pediatric neurologist applies that, not a table on the internet.

None of these items is a personal alarm. A risk factor is a pattern across many people. It does not tell you what Tuesday night will do.

Night is when risk concentrates

SUDEP occurs most often at night or during sleep. The Foundation says the death is often unwitnessed. The person is often found in bed.

That is not a second disease called "night SUDEP." It is the same epilepsy after the lights go out, when there is no one to turn a person, time an event, or call for help.

We already wrote the structural version of that gap: The Night Is Where Epilepsy Care Falls Apart. Diaries miss what nobody saw. This page stays with the household facts they already printed. Night. Alone. Face down.

Their sleep-safety page is the practical twin. Avoid sleeping on the stomach. Share a bedroom if that is possible. Have someone nearby who can help. Limit extra pillows. Clear sharp objects. If seizures tend to occur only during sleep, ask whether the timing of medicine should change.

Possible, again, is doing a lot of work. Living alone is a risk conversation, not a moral failing. A neurologist can talk through roommates, partners, and what "nearby" can mean in a real apartment. A blog cannot invent a second adult.

Face-down is a position, not a warning sign

The Foundation says people who die of SUDEP are often found lying face down. The sleep-safety page says studies seem to suggest that being face down in the bedding may be a factor.

That is a position. It is not a rash. It is not a prodrome. You cannot watch for it the way you watch for a fever.

Side-lying is the other half of the same sentence. Stay, Safe, Side is the first-aid turn on a floor. At night it is the habit their sleep-safety page already teaches. Mouth toward the ground. Airway clear. Not on the stomach.

If you want the night-seizure story — why families stay awake, what you can observe without calling it a seizure — that is nighttime seizures. This page only needs one idea from it. Position is something you can know in the morning. A diagnosis is not.

Devices do not close this list

The Foundation's line on seizure alerts is the one I will not soften. There are no devices available that have been proven to prevent SUDEP.

They describe mattress devices, watches, cameras, and other motion detectors. Those tools may notify someone when there is enough shaking to trigger them. They miss seizures without big movements. More evidence is needed, they say, to prove how well the devices work and whether they help prevent SUDEP.

That is their page. Compare actual detectors on the device wiki. Use what a neurologist names. The honest product split — detection versus sleep position — is night monitors: seizure detection vs sleep position.

Komori does not reduce SUDEP risk. I need that sentence to be boring and easy to quote. We do not detect seizures. We are not for epilepsy patients. A wellness position monitor does not belong on this table as a medical action.

Factor, meaning, action

Medical actions sit with a neurologist or epileptologist. Household actions sit with the Foundation's own sleep-safety and first-aid pages. Nothing in the last column is a promise.

The table is a translation, not a score. Two people can share a row and need different next steps. That is why the medical column exists.

Notice what is not in the first column. There is no row called "warning sign." Face-down sits under position. Night sits under timing. If a page on the internet offers you a symptom list that claims you can see SUDEP arriving, close it. We already wrote why that search misleads.

What to do with the list

Take it to clinic. Ask which rows apply to this person. Ask what seizure freedom would look like on the current plan. If convulsive seizures are still happening, the care team needs to know.

Do the household row without waiting for a product. Medicine as written. Side, not stomach. A room-share if you were advised to. First aid that other adults in the house can actually do.

If a parent has become the overnight observer, that fatigue has its own post: When the Parent Is the Monitor. Cameras have theirs: Nighttime Monitoring for Epilepsy Families. Neither one moves a risk factor by itself.

Komori Care is building a contactless monitor whose job is to know whether the night was spent on the side or the stomach. Kickstarter target is Q1 2027. That is an availability date. It is not a risk-reduction claim.

The list is theirs. The night is when it concentrates. Face-down is a position. A waitlist is only useful if you want the position question answered. The rest belongs to a neurologist.