Epworth Sleepiness Scale (modified)
To find out how sleepy you are during the daytime, answer the questions below. The higher your total score, the higher your excessive daytime sleepiness or EDS.
Answer the following questions as honestly as you can. Even if you haven't been in some of these situations, try and guess how they might affect you. Choose from the following answers:
1 = slight chance of dozing
2 = moderate chance of dozing
3 = high chance of dozing
If you can’t relate to the word “doze,” think about how likely it is that your eyelids would droop, you'd feel yourself "nodding off" or you'd actually fall asleep DURING THE DAYTIME during the eight activities listed below.
Situation Chance of dozing (0-3)
1. Sitting and reading _____
3. Sitting quietly in public, i.e. at church, the movies, etc. _____
4. As a passenger in a moving car for an hour without a break _____
5. Lying down in the middle of the afternoon _____
6. Sitting and talking to someone _____
7. Sitting quietly after a lunch without alcohol _____
8. As the driver of a car, while stopped in traffic for a few minutes _____
Add up your score. A total score of 6 or more suggests you suffer from daytime sleepiness. 10 or more suggests you have excessive daytime sleepiness (EDS) and 16 or more suggests dangerously excessive daytime sleepiness.
If you have dangerously excessive daytime sleepiness, you should probably not drive a car or operate heavy machinery until you are getting better sleep and are less tired during the day.
While not everybody who needs to get better sleep has a high Epworth score, it helps to know the number. Save your test and put the date on it. Then as you work your way through this journey to better sleep and start to get better sleep, take this test again from time to time to see how much your daytime sleepiness has dropped! OK. Continue to the next test, the Stanford Sleepiness Scale (modified).
