What this self-check is — and what it isn't
The nine questions above are an original sleep-habits reflection, written for this site. Let us be blunt about what that means, because it matters. This is not the Insomnia Severity Index (ISI). It is not a rewording of the ISI, and it is not designed to imitate its scoring. The ISI is a copyrighted clinical instrument, and our position — set out on the methodology page — is that we do not clone copyrighted questionnaires. What you get here instead is a set of plain-language questions we authored ourselves, meant to help you reflect on your sleep, not to screen or diagnose you.
So read your result as a mirror, not a measurement. It can help you notice patterns you had stopped seeing. It cannot tell you whether you have insomnia disorder — only a clinician can do that, using criteria this tool does not apply.
What the questions are actually looking at
The nine items pull from three different angles on sleep, on purpose:
- Sleep quality, onset, and maintenance — how long it takes you to fall asleep, whether you wake in the night, whether you wake too early. This is the felt experience of the sleep itself.
- Sleep-hygiene behaviours — the habits around sleep that either protect it or quietly erode it: caffeine late in the day, screens in bed, sleep and wake times that jump around, using alcohol as a nightcap.
- Daytime impact — the part that usually matters most: whether poor sleep is costing you energy, focus, mood, and patience while you are awake.
Splitting it this way is useful because the shape of your answers tells you more than the total. Points concentrated in the behaviour questions point to a tune-up. Points in the sleep-quality questions, especially with a high daytime cost that has lasted weeks, point toward something worth a professional conversation.
How to read your score
Each question is answered 0 to 3 — from "not in the past two weeks" to "most nights" — for a total between 0 and 27. Higher means more friction.
| Score | Band | What it suggests |
|---|---|---|
| 0–6 | Solid sleep habits | Sleep is mostly working; protect what is holding it up |
| 7–14 | Some friction worth tuning | Habits you can likely smooth out yourself |
| 15–21 | Frequent disruption | Disruption often enough to cost you by day; take it seriously |
| 22–27 | Significant, persistent disruption | Worth a doctor’s attention; may be chronic insomnia |
These bands are our own interpretive zones, not clinical cutoffs — because, again, this is a reflection, not a validated screen. Treat the band as a rough neighbourhood and pay more attention to which kind of question drove your score.
Does sleep hygiene actually work?
Mostly yes — with an honest caveat. The individual habits this tool asks about are backed by solid evidence: consistent sleep and wake times, limiting caffeine and alcohol, and reducing stimulating screen use before bed all have real effects on sleep for most people.1 These are the highest-yield, lowest-cost changes, and they are the right place to start if your score sits in the lower or middle bands.
The caveat: for chronic insomnia — trouble sleeping most nights for three months or more — sleep hygiene alone is usually not enough. The research is clear that hygiene advice on its own is a weak treatment for entrenched insomnia, and that the structured programme described below works far better.1 So use the habit changes as a first line, but do not expect them to fix a long-standing problem by themselves.
What to change first
If your score has room to improve, resist the urge to overhaul everything. Look at the behaviour questions you scored worst on and change one, because behaviours are the cheapest wins:
- Anchor your wake time. A consistent wake time — even on weekends — does more for sleep than almost anything else, because it stabilises your body clock. Our sleep cycle calculator can help you work backward from it to a sensible bedtime.
- Move caffeine earlier. Caffeine has a long tail; an afternoon coffee can still be in your system at bedtime. The caffeine half-life calculator shows you roughly how much is still on board when you try to sleep.
- Get screens out of the bed. Keep the bed for sleep so your brain re-learns the association.
- Stop using alcohol to wind down. It helps you fall asleep and then fragments the second half of the night.
Change one thing, give it two weeks, and re-check. If daytime tiredness is the loudest problem, the sleep debt calculator can help you see how much rest you are actually short, and the brown noise player can help mask disruptions while you settle.
When chronic insomnia warrants a doctor
If trouble sleeping happens most nights, has lasted three months or more, and is affecting your days, that pattern is what clinicians call chronic insomnia disorder — and it is very treatable. This is the point to stop self-managing and talk to a doctor.
The most important thing to know is what to ask for. The first-line, evidence-based treatment for chronic insomnia is CBT-I — cognitive behavioural therapy for insomnia — not sleeping pills. Major clinical guidelines recommend CBT-I as the initial treatment because it works at least as well as medication and its benefits last after the programme ends, without the downsides of long-term sedative use.234 It is a short, structured course that retrains your sleep patterns and the habits and thoughts around them. If a clinician reaches for a prescription first, it is reasonable to ask about CBT-I.
A doctor can also rule out other causes worth catching — sleep apnoea, restless legs, thyroid issues, medication side effects, or an underlying mood or anxiety problem — that no self-check can detect. This tool is a starting point for that conversation, not a substitute for it.
The honest bottom line
People searching for an "insomnia test" usually want one of two things: reassurance that their sleep is fine, or a nudge to finally take a persistent problem seriously. This reflection can help with both — but it earns your trust by being clear about its limits. It is an original set of habit and impact questions, not a clinical instrument, not the ISI, and not a diagnosis. Use it to see your patterns more clearly, act on the cheap fixes first, and if the trouble is frequent and long-standing, bring it to a doctor and ask about CBT-I.