Scientists of Sechenov University have introduced method of quantitative analysis of “daytime sleepiness”. It allows to identify actual drowsiness (hypersomnia) from another condition with similar symptoms, and as a result to prescribe effective and safe treatment.
The problem of daytime sleepiness is crucial for modern society: about 25% of people live with "sleep pressure" during the day. It usually leads to low productivity and/or loss of coordination.
Nevertheless, "daytime sleepiness" doesn’t always mean an extreme tendency to fall asleep. It more often takes for fatigue or even basic laziness.
A sleep disorder diagnostic tool called Multiple Sleep Latency Test (MSLT) helps to distinguish hypersomnia from another condition with similar symptoms. The MSLT is a full-day test that consists of five scheduled naps. During each nap trial, a patient lies quietly in bed and try to go to sleep. The purpose of such tests is to determine speed of falling asleep. If a patient suffers from hypersomnia, an average time to fall asleep is usually less than 8 minutes. If a patient complains of daytime drowsiness, but falls asleep not so fast, it is not a problem of sleep or wakefulness.  

"We became the first who have started to popularize this method in Russia. It turned out that more than 30% patients with hypersomnia are misdiagnosed. Then such misdiagnosis has a serious impact on further treatment. Patients with hypersomnia need to pay attention to night sleep: try to improve it or check signs of neurological diseases. If there’re similar hidden disease symptoms, you should treat these disorders,"- comments Ass. Professor Mikhail Poluektov, Head of the Department of Sleep Medicine at Sechenov University.