ABSTRACT
THE SLEEP HISTORY Sleep medicine is primarily a clinical discipline. The most important diagnostic methodology used is not polysomnography but rather the sleep history. All physicians are trained in the skills of eliciting a history, but the technique and emphasis vary from specialty to specialty. A sleep history involves more than a description of a patient’s sleep. It is actually a sleep-wake history, the drawing of a picture of a 24-hour day from the viewpoints of alertness and tiredness, occupation and leisure hours, rest and sleep. Both the external activities and the internal moods of the patient are equally important in understanding how the quality of sleep and waking can be compromised. Environmental, social, and medical influences all need to be understood.
