Sleep Disorder: Diagnosis
Keeping a sleep diary is easy and a great way to help your doctor learn about the quality of your sleep and how it affects you each day. Simply print a copy of the free sleep diary on this site and use it to record your sleep patterns and activity for one or two weeks. The medications you take, the length of time you spend in bed, and the quality of your sleep are important factors for your neurologist to consider when diagnosing a sleep disorder. Also, you may want to jot down the observations of your sleep partner or other family members who may have witnessed sleep patterns that you may not recall.

Your patient care team will likely want to evaluate both your medical history and your psychological history as well. Since insomnia is frequently associated with mood or affective disorders, a psychological profile can be helpful in isolating causes for sleep disturbance. 

Additionally, there are a number of sleep tests that your doctor may request that can be conducted overnight in a sleep laboratory (or perhaps in your home with portable instruments). For example, if your doctor suspects a breathing-related sleep disorder like sleep apnea, he or she may request a polysomnography to monitor specific physiological functions like pulse rate, nasal airflow, chest movement, and arterial oxygen saturation.

A multiple sleep latency test (MSLT) may also be requested to measure the severity of your daytime sleepiness. The MSLT measures the speed at which you fall asleep during a series of planned naps throughout the day. It also measures the amount of REM sleep you experience.

Likewise, a repeated test of sustained wakefulness (RTSW) may be used to gage your ability to stay awake. During this test, you will be placed in a quiet room with dim lighting and asked to stay awake.

Once the cause of your sleep disturbance is identified, your patient care team can begin to formulate a program for treating the disorder.