Insomnia Severity Calculator

1. Describe a typical bad night. Enter when you go to bed, when you get up, how long it takes to fall asleep and how long you lie awake after first falling asleep. Include waking too early.
2. Say how often and for how long. Pick how many nights a week are like this and how many months it has been going on.
3. Rate the effect on your day. Think about energy, mood, concentration and work or school. Answer No to the last question if you simply do not have enough time in bed.

Insomnia is ongoing difficulty falling asleep, staying asleep or waking too early, even though you have enough time and a suitable place to sleep, and it affects how you feel or function during the day. One bad night is not insomnia. The pattern over weeks and months is what matters.

Doctors separate two types. Short-term insomnia is usually triggered by stress, illness or a change in schedule and lasts days or weeks. Chronic insomnia happens on 3 or more nights a week, lasts more than 3 months and cannot be fully explained by another health problem.

Anxiety and insomnia often feed each other; our guide to insomnia vs anxiety explains how to tell them apart.

The calculator works out your sleep on a bad night, counts insomnia markers, then checks frequency, duration and daytime effect.

These four are the common complaints of people with insomnia listed in the American Academy of Sleep Medicine guideline. Frequency points: 3 to 4 nights = 1, 5 to 6 nights = 2, every night = 3. Daytime points: mild = 1, moderate = 2, severe = 3. A load of 3 to 5 is mild, 6 to 8 moderate and 9 to 10 severe.

All four markers are present, the problem is frequent and long-lasting, and it affects the day. That is the pattern a doctor would want to assess. If the same nights had started only two weeks ago, after a stressful event, the result would read short-term insomnia instead.

The Insomnia Severity Index is a validated 7-question survey that doctors and researchers use to rate insomnia over the past two weeks. Each answer scores 0 to 4, giving a total of 0 to 28.

In a large community study, a score of 10 or more picked out people with insomnia best. The ISI is a copyrighted, licensed questionnaire, so this page does not copy its questions. Your doctor or a sleep clinic can give it to you, and it is a good way to track progress during treatment.

Caffeine, Alcohol And Screens

Late caffeine lengthens the time to fall asleep and alcohol breaks up the second half of the night. Both can create markers on their own.

Stress And Mood

Worry, low mood and anxiety are among the most common triggers of short-term insomnia and can keep it going.

Health Problems And Medicines

Pain, reflux, breathing problems, an overactive thyroid and some medicines disturb sleep. Treating the cause can resolve the insomnia.

Schedule

Irregular bedtimes, long naps and shift work weaken the body clock and make sleep harder to start and keep.

Cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) combines sleep scheduling, stimulus control and changing unhelpful thoughts about sleep. The American Academy of Sleep Medicine gives it a strong recommendation for chronic insomnia in adults.

• Anyone with bad nights who wants to know whether they are occasional or a pattern worth acting on.
• People preparing for a doctor visit, who can bring the result and a sleep diary.
• People tracking progress while changing habits or during treatment.
• Sleep tracker users checking their own estimate against the device; see sleep tracking and insomnia for why the numbers can differ.

Judging From One Bad Night

Everyone has poor nights. Describe a typical bad night and be honest about how often it happens.

Calling Short Sleep Insomnia

If you go to bed late and get up early for work, the problem is too little time in bed, not insomnia.

Spending Longer In Bed To Catch Up

Lying in bed awake for long periods tends to make insomnia worse. Steady habits from sleep hygiene 101 help, but chronic insomnia usually needs CBT-I.

Ignoring Snoring Or Gasping

Waking often with snoring, gasping or morning headaches can point to sleep apnea, which needs a different test.

The calculator follows published definitions, but it relies on your own estimates and cannot diagnose insomnia or rule out other sleep disorders.

For a week-by-week picture, log your nights in the sleep statistics calculator and take it to your appointment.

Insomnia is trouble falling asleep, staying asleep or waking too early despite enough time to sleep, with effects on your day. Only a doctor can diagnose it.

Chronic insomnia happens on 3 or more nights a week and lasts more than 3 months.

Most people fall asleep within about 30 minutes. Regularly taking longer than 30 minutes is a common insomnia complaint.

The ISI is a validated 7-question survey scored from 0 to 28. Scores of 15 to 21 indicate moderate insomnia and 22 to 28 severe insomnia.

No. The ISI is a licensed questionnaire. This calculator uses published insomnia markers and definitions instead, and explains the ISI bands for reference.

Sleep efficiency of 85% or higher is generally considered normal. Lower values mean a lot of time in bed is spent awake.

Cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) is the recommended first treatment for chronic insomnia in adults.

Often, yes. It usually settles once the trigger passes. See a doctor if it lasts more than 3 months or is severe.

See a doctor if bad nights happen 3 or more times a week for weeks, affect your day, or come with snoring, gasping or low mood.

• Schutte-Rodin et al. Clinical guideline for chronic insomnia in adults (JCSM, AASM) (the 4 common quantitative insomnia complaints)
• NHLBI: What is insomnia? (short-term vs chronic insomnia definition)
• Morin et al. The Insomnia Severity Index: psychometric indicators (Sleep, 2011) (ISI score bands and cut-off)
• Edinger et al. Behavioral and psychological treatments for chronic insomnia (AASM guideline) (strong recommendation for CBT-I)
• MedlinePlus: Insomnia (acute and chronic insomnia, common causes)