Still Sleepy After Long Nights: Your Appointment Checklist

If long nights and naps still leave you fighting to stay awake, being told to “get more sleep” may feel like an incomplete answer. Arrange an assessment and bring the details that explain what is happening.

Start with safety

• Raise any immediate safety concern when arranging care. Sleepiness can make driving or operating heavy machinery unsafe. Avoid those activities when struggling to stay awake and ask the clinician for an individual safety plan.¹

Tell the service if the problem affects travel to the appointment. Arrange another way to get there if needed.

Prepare the observations before the appointment

Difficulty waking and unrefreshing naps can occur with idiopathic hypersomnia. Assessment may involve a sleep journal, actigraphy and sleep studies. Ask the service which records it needs and for how long.¹

• Record nights and naps using the requested dates. Write estimated sleep and wake times. Mark estimates as estimates. Include naps and how you felt afterward.

• Describe getting awake. Note what it takes to get out of bed and when you feel ready to start your day. Include help from alarms or another person if that is part of your actual routine.

• Choose concrete examples of daytime impact. Describe occasions when you struggled to stay awake, what you were doing and what was interrupted. Bring the dates or approximate frequency rather than trying to reconstruct everything in the room.

• Bring the medicine list and prior instructions. Keep names, doses and timing available. Do not change a medication routine without clinician approval.¹

Leave with the next step written down

• Confirm the question being investigated. Ask: “Which other explanations need checking? What will the proposed tests help decide?”

• Confirm preparation and follow-up. Ask for instructions for each ordered test, how results will reach you and who to contact if your symptoms or circumstances change before then.

This checklist is for organizing a visit. You do not need to complete a perfect record before asking for care.

Did I Do That in My Sleep? includes a 14-Night Lights-Out Record and a Visit Brief. Use them alongside the service’s requested records and clinical instructions. See the book.