Summer changes the risk calculation for epilepsy more than almost any other season, mostly because so many of its defining activities, swimming, being outside in the heat, later nights, irregular schedules, touch directly on the specific things that make seizures more dangerous or more likely. None of this means summer needs to be avoided. It means a few of the usual precautions matter more between June and September than they do the rest of the year.
Water is the single biggest concern, and it’s worth being direct about why. Drowning is more common among people with epilepsy than in the general population, and the reason isn’t really about swimming ability. A seizure in water can happen regardless of how strong a swimmer someone is, and the danger isn’t limited to deep water either. Drowning can happen in surprisingly little water, quietly and quickly enough that there’s often very little time to react once it starts. There’s also a specific, less obvious mechanism worth knowing about: during a tonic seizure, the muscles of the chest wall contract and force air out of the lungs, which can make the body denser than water and cause rapid submersion. Even once the seizure passes and those muscles relax, the person may not resurface on their own, since water rather than air has already entered the airway. This is part of why supervision during swimming isn’t just a general caution, it’s addressing a mechanism that’s specific to how certain seizures physically interact with being in water.
The practical response to this risk is fairly consistent across expert guidance. A supervised pool is safer than open water like lakes, rivers, or the ocean, since currents, unpredictable depth, and murky water where a person can’t be quickly located all add extra danger on top of the baseline risk. A lifeguard watching an entire pool isn’t the same as dedicated supervision, since their attention is split across everyone in the water, so having a specific “informed buddy,” someone who knows the individual’s seizure type and what to actually do if one happens, close enough to reach them immediately matters more than general lifeguard presence. For anyone with uncontrolled seizures, a properly fitted, face-up life jacket during swimming is a real, commonly recommended safety measure, not an overcautious add-on. And it’s worth remembering that risk doesn’t stay confined to pools and beaches; there are documented cases of people having seizures and nearly drowning in bathtubs or even showers, which is part of why showers are generally recommended over baths for anyone with active seizures.
Heat itself is a separate issue, and a genuinely underappreciated one. For some people, a rise in body temperature can act as a seizure trigger on its own. But there’s also a medication-specific angle that’s easy to miss entirely: certain anti-seizure medications, including topiramate and zonisamide, can reduce the body’s ability to sweat, which directly impairs its ability to cool down. Someone on one of these medications can be at real risk of overheating even in conditions that wouldn’t bother most people, and might not show the usual warning signs of overheating the way someone with normal sweat response would. This is worth a direct conversation with a prescribing doctor, since it’s not something that’s obvious just from reading a medication label, and it changes how seriously heat exposure needs to be taken. Staying well hydrated, taking breaks in shade or air conditioning, and in some cases using a cooling vest or neck cooler for anyone whose seizures are specifically heat-sensitive, are all reasonable, low-effort ways to manage this.
Sun sensitivity is worth a mention too, since some anti-seizure medications increase photosensitivity to actual sunlight, not to be confused with the flashing-light kind of photosensitivity. This can mean a higher risk of sunburn or skin reactions, which is easy to overlook when the focus is naturally on seizures rather than skin.
A few other summer-specific hazards round out the bigger picture. Outdoor grills, campfires, and open flames pose a burn risk that’s worth extra caution around for anyone whose seizures aren’t well controlled, and sitting back from the fire rather than tending it directly is a simple way to reduce that risk. Lawn equipment like mowers and trimmers, especially models that don’t automatically shut off when released, carry similar injury risk if a seizure happens mid-task. And longer daylight hours tend to quietly push back bedtimes and disrupt normal sleep schedules, which matters more than it might seem given how strongly sleep deprivation is tied to seizure risk in general.
None of this is meant to make summer sound like something to sit out. Most of what actually reduces risk here is straightforward: swim with a buddy who knows what to do, respect what heat and medication interactions can do to the body, and keep an eye on the smaller hazards, fire, tools, sleep, that tend to fade into the background of a normal summer but matter more when seizures are part of the picture. A little bit of planning tends to be the difference between a summer spent being cautious and a summer spent actually enjoying it.
References
Epilepsy Foundation of Minnesota. (2019). Seizure safety during summer. Epilepsyfoundationmn.org.
Epilepsy Foundation of Minnesota. (2025). Epilepsy and summer safety: What everyone should know. Epilepsyfoundationmn.org.
Epilepsy Action Australia. (2023). Seizures and swimming. Epilepsy.org.au.
Kennedy, J. D., & Freeman, J. L. Tonic seizures are a particular risk factor for drowning in people with epilepsy. PMC.
Epilepsy Foundation. Summer safety for people with seizures. Epilepsy.com.
Epilepsy Foundation. Water safety | Epilepsy & swimming. Epilepsy.com.
Epilepsy Foundation. Water safety and seizures. Epilepsy.com.
Epilepsy Foundation. Staying safe with seizures. Epilepsy.com.
Epilepsy Alliance America. Seizure safety tips for summer. Epilepsyallianceamerica.org.