Lincoln doctor talks seizure warning signs during National Epilepsy Awareness Month

LINCOLN, Neb. (KLKN) – November is National Epilepsy Awareness Month, and a Lincoln neurologist says people should know the warning signs of a seizure.

Dr. Matthew Kniss, a neurologist with Bryan Health, said epilepsy can be defined as “two or more unprovoked seizures.”

About four to eight percent of the nation’s population will experience a single seizure in their life, Kniss said.

And around three to four million Americans are diagnosed with epilepsy, according to Kniss.

Types of epilepsy are categorized based on brain activity and symptoms experienced during the seizure.

Some symptoms of focal onset seizures can include impaired awareness.

“It’s a big misnomer I think, that you can have a seizure without a lot of physical movement and without a lot of physical activity,” Kniss said.

Generalized seizures are another form of epilepsy and occur when a person begins to convulse and loses consciousness.

Seizures are more common during sleep or during the wake-sleep transition period for those with epilepsy.