ever had thoughts on the way we sleep and how we take meds?

Well I've been seizure free whilst taking my present meds for 4 years now and during that time I've gone from working long permanent night shifts to afternoon starts and have found absolutely no problems once I found which time suited me best for taking my meds and stuck pretty strictly to it. Yes I realise that other people's systems can react very differently to even the slightest change in their routine but this worked for me. I take my meds at 12 hour intervals the same as you but even when I was working nights I took them at 9am and 9pm which worked fine for me so when I adjusted to working mainly 2pm-10pm shifts I only had to gradually change it very slightly to 10am and 10pm. If I'm at work until 10 then I take my meds with me and take them when I finish work. I very rarely get to bed before 1am but then I can still sleep until at least 9.30am until I have to get up and on occasions when I've been out til 3 or 4am I'll set the alarm and take my meds and go back to bed for another couple of hours. If I know I'm going to be out for a whole day or staying overnight somewhere then I take my meds with me it's not something that I freak out about anymore. Yes at first when my seizures were under control it was something that I got stressed out about but the reality was the more I got stressed the more paranoid I got about the whole thing and it just became a vicious circle now I don't worry that much about it and even on the odd occasion that I've been doing something and forgot once or twice to take my meds on time I've not panicked and just taken them as soon as possible and touch wood everything has been OK.

Dundee, Keeping a regular schedule is essential. I have a tendency to stay up late and wake up late (and later, and later), but this doesn't work. I get sick with my epilepsy every time I try to push it. I can get away with it for a while, but it always catches up with me. <strong>A major shift in your sleeping pattern should not cause seizures to develop slowly, but it may cause problems until you get used to the new hours.</strong> However, any major change in your life may cause changes in your epilepsy. For example, if you're out of school, but take an ultra high stress job, looking at strobe lights all day, getting 2 hours of sleep a night, with a four hour bicycle commute, and go on a celery only diet, your epilepsy may get worse. As long as you take your meds on a regular schedule based on the hours you keep there should be no problem. It seems like setting an alarm for your midnight meds would cause you not to sleep as well, making you fatigued, and then causing seizures. It might also cause a level change, since the food that you do, or do not, take with the meds might be changed, and because your body might metabolize it differently because of the difference relative to your sleep cycle. This could also cause seizures. <strong>Judging by my experience I think that it would be a really bad idea to wake up to take your meds all the time.</strong> I agree with Andy though, that if you are just going to sleep in on a Saturday or something, that waking up to take your meds is probably a good idea. All the best, Matthew Simington