Night Monitors: Seizure Detection vs Sleep Position

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.

You typed "nighttime seizure monitor" because you want something in the room that tells you if the night went wrong.

That want is reasonable. The product category is not one category. People mix two jobs and then feel cheated by both.

I build the second job. I do not sell the first. This page is the split.

What people mean

They mean a thing that wakes a caregiver. A watch that buzzes. A camera that alarms. A pad under the mattress. Something that says: go down the hall.

The Epilepsy Foundation's page on seizure alerts describes that job in their words. A device may notify someone if there is enough repeated shaking to trigger it. A person can then turn the sleeper on their side, keep them from ending the night on their stomach, give prescribed rescue medicine, or call for help if the seizure lasts too long.

They also say the quiet part. There are no devices available that have been proven to prevent SUDEP.

Read that again before you buy anything. Including us.

The Foundation also notes the limits that shopping pages skip. These tools may not help a person who lives alone, or who does not want someone checking on them. They do not alert caregivers to breathing problems or heart-rate changes. Evidence often comes from hospital epilepsy units. Some devices have not been studied in a systematic way, so it is unclear how they behave in an ordinary bedroom.

Two jobs

Detection looks for shaking. The Foundation groups today's seizure-alert hardware as motion devices.

Mattress devices sit under the bed and look for vibration. When they think they see seizure-like movement, an alarm sounds.

Watch devices use accelerometers, and sometimes GPS. They look for repeated movement and can text, sound, or email someone.

Camera devices send infrared video to a phone. An app watches for unusual motion, then plays live sound and video if it alarms.

Those tools may work for tonic-clonic seizures, or for focal motor seizures with enough movement. Absence seizures and many focal seizures without big movements are not detected. Most of the devices they describe are not FDA-approved.

I am naming the types they name. I am not ranking brands. If a clinician wants a detector in the house, they should pick it. The wiki is the catalog. This page is only the split.

Position looks for side, back, or stomach. No camera. No strap. It does not classify an event. It does not call anyone. It answers a smaller question: how did the body lie.

If you need detection, you need the first row, named by a neurologist. Compare options on the Foundation's device wiki. That catalog is their living list of devices and apps. It is the place to shop detectors. It is not a ranking I am going to rewrite.

If you need position, that is a wellness question. Do not buy the second row and tell yourself you purchased the first.

The Foundation's own after-alert picture is the bridge I care about. If someone does get to the room, they can turn the person on their side. They can make sure the person does not fall asleep on their stomach after. That is first aid. It is also the sleep-position habit. Detection, when it works, is a way to get a human there. Position is what that human is trying to change.

Why the fear is real

SUDEP occurs most often at night or during sleep. The Foundation says the person is often found in bed, often face down, and the death is often unwitnessed. The longer definition on this site is What SUDEP Is and Is Not. I am not going to repeat it.

Families stay awake for that sentence. Parents become the monitor. Cameras go up in rooms where a teenager would rather die than be on video. We already wrote those posts and I am not going to rewrite them: When the Parent Is the Monitor, Nighttime Monitoring for Epilepsy Families, The Night Is Where Epilepsy Care Falls Apart.

The fear is not the problem. Selling a fake detector into the fear is the problem.

A nighttime seizure is still a clinician's call. If that is the search that brought you here, the night-seizure page is here. If you searched "warning signs," or you want the risk-factor list, both are on what SUDEP is and is not. That page is not a shopping list either.

What to do that is not a purchase

Stay, Safe, Side still applies in the dark. The Foundation's recognition hub is the training.

Safety while sleeping is the bedroom list. Avoid the stomach. Limit extra pillows. Clear sharp objects. Share a room if that is the plan you were given. Take medicine as written. Ask about dose timing if events cluster in sleep. Some households already put a monitor in the room so a person can hear if something happens. That is their sentence, and it is still not a promise.

Talk to a neurologist before you talk to a cart. Ask whether a clinically validated detector belongs in this house. Ask which seizure types that detector can actually see. Ask what the action plan is after an alarm.

Sleep and epilepsy still feed each other. The Foundation's sleep page is the one for triggers and rest, not a tracker app.

Where Komori fits

Komori Care is a contactless sleep-position monitor. No camera. No wearable. It does not detect seizures. It is not for epilepsy patients. It is not FDA-cleared for epilepsy. It does not prevent SUDEP.

I will keep repeating those sentences. Shopping pages bury them. Families search "nighttime seizure monitor" and get a pile of watches, cameras, and mattress pads that all sound like safety. Some of those products belong in the detector row. Ours does not. If a sentence on our site ever sounds like we crossed that line, it is a mistake. The table is the claim.

Privacy is part of the split, not a slogan. A camera records a room. A wearable has to stay on a wrist that may not want it. A contactless position sensor sits at the head of the bed and watches how a body lies. That is still a sensor in a bedroom. It is not a substitute for a detector, and it is not invisible. If a household does not want any device in the room, that is a valid answer. The Foundation's sleep-safety list still works without one.

The job, if we do it, is to know whether the night was spent on the side or the stomach. That is the habit the Foundation already teaches. Side-lying after a seizure. Not face-down in the bedding. Position is not a warning sign. It is a fact about the night.

Kickstarter is the plan for Q1 2027. That is when we hope the product exists. It is not a medical milestone. It is not a clearance. It is a shipping target.

If a household is living with epilepsy, the devices that belong in the plan are the ones a care team validates. Use the wiki. Use the clinic. Do not use our waitlist as a substitute.

If the question you actually have is position — side versus stomach, no camera, no strap — that is the waitlist. Wellness. Not a detector. Not a diagnosis.

A waitlist is a shipping list. It is not a care plan. If you are still deciding which job you need, take the table to a neurologist and ask which row they want in the house. Then buy that row from the people who actually make it.

I would rather lose the sale than blur the table.