Narcolepsy Criteria (Type 1 and Type 2)
Applies the third International Classification of Sleep Disorders criteria for narcolepsy.
Open the calculator → Runs in your browser. Data leaves only if you deliberately send a problem report from the interactive tool.
Example
- Daily irrepressible sleep or lapses into sleep for at least three months
- Yes
- Mean sleep latency on the latency test
- 5 minutes
- Sleep-onset REM periods on the latency test
- 1
- A sleep-onset REM period on the overnight study
- Yes
- Other causes excluded
- Yes
Result: type 2
The tool opens with these values already filled in. Replace them with your own.
What the result means
- Type 1
- Cataplexy with a mean latency of 8 minutes or less and two or more sleep-onset REM periods, or a spinal-fluid hypocretin-1 of 110 pg/mL or less on its own.
- Type 2
- The same latency findings with no cataplexy, the hypocretin unmeasured or above the line, and other causes excluded.
- Both types
- Daily irrepressible sleep or lapses into sleep for at least three months is required before either route is considered.
- Cataplexy alone
- Does not meet the criteria. It is half of one route and has to be paired with the latency findings, or replaced by the hypocretin result.
- The overnight study
- A sleep-onset REM period there may replace one of the two on the latency test, so a test showing one is not necessarily negative.
- Low hypocretin
- Type 1 whether or not there is cataplexy. The deficiency is the disease; cataplexy is a consequence not every patient has.
- The exclusion
- Too little sleep, untreated obstructive apnea, a delayed sleep phase and medication all produce a short latency with sleep-onset REM periods.
What you enter
- Daily irrepressible sleep or lapses into sleep for at least three months
- Cataplexy: brief loss of muscle tone triggered by emotion
- Mean sleep latency on the latency test: the threshold is 8 or less
- Sleep-onset REM periods on the latency test: the threshold is 2
- A sleep-onset REM period on the overnight study, which may count as one of the two
- Hypocretin-1 in the spinal fluid: 110 or less is type 1 on its own
- Other causes excluded: too little sleep, obstructive apnea, a delayed sleep phase, medication
How this is calculated
American Academy of Sleep Medicine. International Classification of Sleep Disorders. 3rd ed. Darien, IL: AASM; 2014. Read the source ↗
A reference and educational tool. Not medical, legal, or financial advice, and not a substitute for clinician judgment.