What Is the Epworth Sleepiness Scale?
The Epworth Sleepiness Scale (ESS) is an assessment test used to measure daytime sleepiness. People with high levels of daytime sleepiness may be experiencing sleep disorders such as insomnia and sleep apnea. The test can be used to evaluate people for sleep disorders and to follow up on a patient who has received treatment for a sleep disorder. It consists of a series of self-reporting questions that the patient answers. On the test, the patient is asked to report on the likelihood of dozing or falling asleep in a series of situations. The responses are numbered between zero and three to indicate whether falling asleep is very unlikely or highly probable. The responses are tallied at the end for a single numerical score. Average scores for adults are around six, while scores of 10 or higher indicate that a patient has excessive daytime sleepiness.