A Multiple Sleep Latency Test or MSLT, is designed to measure the degree of sleep tendency or sleepiness in a given patient. This test is conducted during the day following a routine PSG and features a series of up to five naps, each lasting usually less than 30 minutes that are timed to start every two hours during the day.
For example:

• 10:00 am
  
• 12:00 noon
  
• 2:00 pm
  
• 4:00 pm
  
• 6:00 pm
  

It is important prior to having an MSLT study that a 1-2 week sleep diary be completed and your doctor be aware of any medications (OTC or otherwise) that you are taking, since many medications can effect the results of this test.
The purpose of the MSLT is two fold: first, to average the number of minutes that is takes to fall asleep (sleep onset latency) during all the naps and second, to record if REM stage sleep occurs during any of these scheduled napping periods.

This test is particularly useful in helping people with Narcolepsy adjust their medication, diagnose Narcolepsy, objectively quantify the degree of sleepiness in a particular patient, such as an OSA (obstructive sleep apnea) patient who sill sleepy despite CPAP treatment and in diagnosing Idiopathic Hypersomnolence

What is Narcolepsy?

NARCOLEPSY is a chronic (long lasting) neurological (affecting the brain or nerves) disorder that involves your body's central nervous system. The central nervous system is the "highway" of nerves that carries messages from your brain to other parts of the body. For people with narcolepsy, the messages about when to sleep and when to be awake sometimes hit road blocks or detours and arrive in the wrong place at the wrong time. This is why someone with narcolepsy, not managed by medications, may fall asleep while eating dinner engaged in social activities or at times when he or she wants to be awake.

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