Seizure Triggers
What causes seizures?
For a person with epilepsy, seizures can happen randomly and unpredictably; however, a variety of situations can trigger seizures, including extreme stress, lack of sleep, watching flashing or strobe lights, low blood sugar, excessive intake of alcohol, certain medications, hormonal changes, and illness. For those individuals on medication to control their seizures, the most common trigger is not taking medication as instructed. However, seizures often occur without any specific triggering event. Furthermore, individuals have different seizure thresholds, and an event that may trigger a seizure in one person may not do so in another. Keep in mind too that not all changes in behavior are seizures, and not all seizures mean you have epilepsy.
Identification of triggers
In most patients with epilepsy, seizures happen randomly and unpredictably, although some people with epilepsy can identify certain conditions that may trigger a seizure. Flickering lights are often given as an example, however, they trigger a seizure in only about 3% of people with epilepsy. Some women with epilepsy find that they are more likely to have a seizure at certain times in their menstrual cycle.
Among people taking antiepilepsy medication, missing a dose of the medicine is the most common seizure trigger. Seizure triggers commonly reported by people with epilepsy include:
 Stress
Lack of sleep
Infection
Starvation or dehydration
Excessive drinking
Flashing or strobe lights
Certain medications
Withdrawing from an addictive drug (including alcohol)
High fevers (in children)
Febrile seizures
In some infants and young children (up to the age of 5 years), a high fever can trigger a seizure. These attacks are known as "febrile seizures" or "febrile convulsions" and they are much more common than actual cases of epilepsy. They occur in about four or five children in every hundred.
If a child has one febrile seizure there is about a 25% risk they will have another during a later febrile illness, but the risk that a child who has had febrile seizures will go on to develop epilepsy is very low (only about 2%).
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