The sleep deprivation self-assessment tools below are shared free with you for your personal use.

  • The Maas Robbins Alertness Questionnaire can be used to help to assess daytime alertness in the context of sleep quantity and quality.

    • Results: If you agreed with four or more of these statements, your daytime alertness is negatively affected and you may be seriously sleep-deprived.

  • The Epworth Sleepiness Scale can be used to help classify the severity of sleep deprivation.

    • Results: Your total score is based on a scale of 0 to 24. Add the values of your responses and interpret accordingly.

      • 0-7: It is unlikely that you are abnormally sleepy.

      • 8-9: You appear to have an average amount of daytime sleepiness.

      • 10-15: You may be excessively sleepy depending on the situation. You may want to consider seeking medical attention.

      • 16-24: You are excessively sleepy and it is recommended that you consider seeking medical attention.

 

Sleep Deprivation Overview

Sleep deprivation is the condition of having inadequate duration and/or quality of sleep to support alertness, performance, and health. It can be either chronic or acute and may vary widely in severity. Acute sleep deprivation refers to a short period, usually a few days or less, when a person has a significant reduction in sleep time. Chronic sleep deprivation, also known as insufficient sleep syndrome, is defined by the American Academy of Sleep Medicine as curtailed sleep that persists for three months or longer.

Symptoms of sleep deprivation may include slowed thinking, reduced attention span, worsened memory, poor or risky decision-making lack of energy and mood changes including feelings of stress, anxiety, or irritability.

Multiple factors can cause or contribute to sleep deprivation including poor sleep hygiene, lifestyle choices, work obligations, sleep disorders (including insomnia and sleep apnea), and other medical conditions.

Per the Sleep Foundation, chronic sleep deprivation can contribute to a wide range of health problems. Sleep plays a fundamental role in the effective functioning of nearly all systems of the body, so a persistent lack of sleep creates significant risks to physical and mental health including:

  • Cardiovascular disease: Studies have found strong associations between sleep deficiency and cardiovascular problems including high blood pressure, coronary heart disease, heart attack, and stroke.

  • Diabetes: Insufficient sleep appears to affect the body’s ability to regulate blood sugar, increasing the risk of metabolic conditions like diabetes.

  • Obesity: Research has found that people tend to consume more calories and carbohydrates when they don’t get enough sleep, which is just one of several ways that poor sleep may be tied to obesity and problems maintaining a healthy weight.

  • Immunodeficiency: Sleep deficiency has been shown to lead to worsened immune function, including a poorer response to vaccines.

  • Hormonal abnormalities: Sleep helps the body properly produce and regulate levels of various hormones, potentially increasing susceptibility to hormonal problems in people with sleep deprivation.

  • Pain: Sleep-deprived people are at a higher risk of developing pain or feeling that their pain is getting worse. Pain may cause further sleep interruptions, creating a negative cycle of worsening pain and sleep.

  • Mental health disorders: Sleep and mental health are closely intertwined, and poor sleep has strong associations with conditions like depression, anxiety, and bipolar disorder.

Given these diverse and important impacts of sleep deprivation, it comes as no surprise that studies have found insufficient sleep to be tied with a greater overall risk of death as well as a lower quality of life. On a society-wide level, the impacts of sleep deprivation are enormous. The CDC estimates that as many as 6,000 deaths each year are caused by drowsy driving, and sleep deprivation has been calculated to incur hundreds of billions in added healthcare costs as well as over $400B in productivity losses per year in the United States alone.

Sources: Dr. James Maas | Epworth Sleepiness Scale | Medicine Today | The Sleep Foundation | Wikipedia | National Library of Medicine