The consequences of dozing off when intending to stay awake, e.g. while driving or at work, are potentially catastrophic. The accurate assessment of this tendency is important, but is currently difficult. Several different methods give disparate results. A way out of this dilemma is suggested that involves modification of existing concepts of sleep and wakefulness to conclude the powerful influence of behaviour on sleep propensity. This propensity at a particular time depends, hypothetically, on a mutually inhibitory interaction between a sleep and a wake drive, not on the magnitude of either drive alone. Measurements of sleep propensity are partly situation-specific, whether measured objectively by laboratory tests or subjectively by a questionnaire such as the Epworth Sleepiness Scale. The latter is believed to measure a general characteristic, the average sleep propensity across a range of specified situations in daily life. Any one situational sleep propensity is not always an accurate predictor of another, even in the same subject. The Multiple Sleep Latency test should not be a gold standard for such measurements. Wider discussion and more research into "sleepiness" is needed.

中文翻译：

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重新思考嗜睡评估。

打算保持清醒时（例如，开车或工作时）打do睡的后果可能是灾难性的。对这种趋势的准确评估很重要，但是目前很困难。几种不同的方法给出不同的结果。提出了解决这一难题的方法，其中涉及对现有的睡眠和清醒概念进行修改，以得出行为对睡眠倾向的强大影响。假设在特定时间，这种倾向取决于睡眠和唤醒驱动器之间的相互抑制性相互作用，而不取决于任一驱动器的大小。睡眠倾向的测量在某种程度上是针对特定情况的，无论是通过实验室测试客观地测量还是通过问卷调查（例如Epworth嗜睡量表）进行主观测量。后者被认为具有一般特征，日常生活中各种特定情况下的平均睡眠倾向。即使在同一主题中，任何一种情况的睡眠倾向都不总是另一种情况的准确预测指标。多次睡眠延迟测试不应成为此类测量的黄金标准。需要进行更广泛的讨论，并对“困倦”进行更多研究。