Maintenance of Wakefulness Test (MWT)

The main­te­nance of wake­ful­ness test (MWT) mea­sures how alert you are dur­ing the day. The test will show whether or not you are able to stay awake for a defined peri­od of time by mea­sur­ing your abil­i­ty to stay awake in a qui­et, dark and non-stim­u­lat­ing room. This test is usu­al­ly giv­en if you are receiv­ing ther­a­py for con­di­tions caus­ing day­time sleepi­ness. The MWT con­sists of four tri­als with breaks last­ing two hours in between them. Falling asleep in an aver­age of less than eight min­utes dur­ing the test would be con­sid­ered abnor­mal. Nor­mal results con­sist of stay­ing awake for the entire 40 min­utes of all four trials.