Sleep diary

Review patients sleep diaries to track the number of cataplexy, sleep paralysis, and hallucinatory events and when they occur. 

Review the sleep diaries and timing of RLS symptoms to watch for possible symptom augmentation. 

For RBD, review the sleep diaries and interview bed partners to determine the number and nature of episodes. 

Patients with short-term or chronic insomnia should be evaluated after 1 week of therapy to assess for drug effectiveness, adverse events, and compliance with nonpharmacologic recommendations. Patients should be instructed to maintain a sleep diary, including a daily recording of awakenings, medications taken, naps, and an index of sleep quality. 

Keeping a daily sleep diary is essential to implement SRT effectively. Although the sleep diary is subject to distortions (12), it is a standard assessment procedure for collecting the daily estimates of sleep-wake parameters necessary for SRT. The diary serves several functions, including that of determining baseline values of total sleep time and time spent in bed to set an appropriate sleep window during the intervention. Ideally, those baseline values are based on at least 1 week and, preferably, 2 weeks of self-monitoring. 

Monk T, Buysse D, Welsh D, Kennedy K, Rose L. A sleep diary and questionnaire study of naturally short sleepers. J Sleep Res 2001 10 173-179. 

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