Inside the Clinical Evaluation of Sleepiness: Subjective and Objective Tools

Overview

Journal Sleep Breath

Publisher Springer

Date 2019 May 31

PMID 31144154

Citations 11

Authors

Simone Baiardi

Susanna Mondini

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Purpose: To critically review the available tools for evaluating excessive daytime sleepiness (EDS) in clinical practice.

Methods: Objective tests and subjective scales were divided into three groups in accordance with the different dimensions of sleepiness they measure, namely physiological, manifest, and introspective. Strengths, weaknesses, and limitations of each test have been analysed and discussed along with the available recommendations for their use in clinical practice.

Results: The majority of the tests developed for sleepiness evaluation do not have practical usefulness outside the research setting. The suboptimal correlation between different tests mainly depends on the different dimensions of sleepiness they analyse. Most importantly in-laboratory tests poorly correlate with sleepiness in real-life situations and, to date, none is able to predict the risk of injuries related to EDS, especially on an individual level.

Conclusions: There exists not the one best test to assess EDS, however, clinicians can choose a more specific test to address a specific diagnostic challenge on the individual level. The development of novel performance tests with low cost and easy to administer is advisable for both screening purposes and fitness for duty evaluations in populations at high risk of EDS-related injuries, for example professional drivers.

Citing Articles

Match and Mismatch between Lived Experiences of Daytime Sleepiness and Diagnostic Instruments: A Qualitative Study amongst Patients with Sleep Disorders.

Verhoef V, Smolders K, Remmelswaal L, Peeters G, Overeem S, de Kort Y Clocks Sleep. 2024; 6(1):24-39.

PMID: 38247883 PMC: 10801535. DOI: 10.3390/clockssleep6010003.

Excessive rest time during active phase is reliably detected in a mouse model of myotonic dystrophy type 1 using home cage monitoring.

Golini E, Rigamonti M, Raspa M, Scavizzi F, Falcone G, Gourdon G Front Behav Neurosci. 2023; 17:1130055.

PMID: 36935893 PMC: 10017452. DOI: 10.3389/fnbeh.2023.1130055.

Revisiting the Concept of Vigilance.

Klosch G, Zeitlhofer J, Ipsiroglu O Front Psychiatry. 2022; 13:874757.

PMID: 35774096 PMC: 9237243. DOI: 10.3389/fpsyt.2022.874757.

Investigation and management of residual sleepiness in CPAP-treated patients with obstructive sleep apnoea: the European view.

Craig S, Pepin J, Randerath W, Causse C, Verbraecken J, Asin J Eur Respir Rev. 2022; 31(164).

PMID: 35613742 PMC: 9488506. DOI: 10.1183/16000617.0230-2021.

Defining obstructive sleep apnoea syndrome: a failure of semantic rules.

Riha R Breathe (Sheff). 2022; 17(3):210082.

PMID: 35035552 PMC: 8753646. DOI: 10.1183/20734735.0082-2021.

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