Sleepiness Scale

Sleep disorders such as narcolepsy and sleep apnea can affect one’s quality of life and quality of sleep and predispose one to all sorts of other problems. Both these conditions can be dangerous in and of themselves, but also speak to and/or impact on the quality of sleep being obtained during normal sleep hours. Sleep disorders can increase levels of anxiety, stress and depression, impact on our ability to recover from exercise, compromise our immune system and impact on our ability to process life events. They also compromise our ability to think clearly and remember things, and current research even correlates them with chronic neurological conditions such as Alzheimers. Sleep apnea is also a risk factor for a number of other conditions such as diabetes, metabolic syndrome, high blood pressure, cardiac problems and liver disease. This tool uses your degree of sleepiness in different circumstances in order to measure your risk of having a sleep disorder. This will allow you to engage with a doctor to work out what kind of sleep problem you have. In the case of narcolepsy, a specialist can help you to adjust your lifestyle to best manage this problem. If the cause turns out to be sleep apnea or something completely different like chronic fatigue you can then be referred to the correct specialist to provide medication or supplement, and/or psychological help to resolve personal problems or make lifestyle changes such as increased exercise, more sunlight and less digital screen time before bed.