Recommended Elements of Forensic Sleep Evaluations (Ref. 17, p 933)
| Review of family history for sleep disorders |
| A complete history of the defendant's lifetime motor behavior activity during sleep. This includes obtaining collateral information from possible witnesses such as bed partners/relatives/friends. These details should include age at onset, the usual timing of the event during the sleep, the degree of amnesia, and both the duration and frequency of the episodes |
| Information about sleep/wake habits, prescribed and illicit drug use, herbal products, habitual caffeine and alcohol consumption should be obtained |
| Information about circumstantial factors of both the person's life and hours prior to the incident are essential |
| Complete physical, neurologic and psychiatric evaluations, and administration of standardized questionnaires for sleep disorders should be carried out |
| A video-polysomnography study to identify or rule out other sleep disorders associated with abnormal motor behaviors (to include standard polysomnographic monitoring, scalp EEG, electromyographic monitoring of limbs, and time-synchronized audiovisual recording) |