The Stanford Sleepiness Scale (SSS), developed by

William C. Dement William Charles Dement (July 29, 1928 – June 17, 2020) was an American sleep researcher and founder of the Sleep Research Center at Stanford University. He was a leading authority on sleep, sleep deprivation and the diagnosis and treatment of ...

and colleagues in 1972, is a one-item

self-report A self-report study is a type of survey, questionnaire, or poll in which respondents read the question and select a response by themselves without any outside interference. A ''self-report'' is any method which involves asking a participant ab ...

questionnaire A questionnaire is a research instrument that consists of a set of questions (or other types of prompts) for the purpose of gathering information from respondents through survey or statistical study. A research questionnaire is typically a mix of ...

measuring levels of sleepiness throughout the day. The scale, which can be administered in 1–2 minutes, is generally used to track overall alertness at each hour of the day. The scale has been validated for adult populations aged 18 and older. The SSS is used in both research and clinical settings to assess the level of intervention or effectiveness of a specific treatment in order to compare a clients progress.

Reliability and validity

Reliability

Reliability Reliability, reliable, or unreliable may refer to: Science, technology, and mathematics Computing * Data reliability (disambiguation), a property of some disk arrays in computer storage * High availability * Reliability (computer networking), ...

refers to whether the scores are reproducible. Unless otherwise specified, the reliability scores and values come from studies done with a United States population sample.

Validity

Validity Validity or Valid may refer to: Science/mathematics/statistics: * Validity (logic), a property of a logical argument * Scientific: ** Internal validity, the validity of causal inferences within scientific studies, usually based on experiments ...

describes the evidence that an assessment tool measures what it was supposed to measure. Unless otherwise specified, the reliability scores and values come from studies done with a United States population sample.

Development and history

The SSS was developed to measure subjective sleepiness in research and clinical settings. Other instruments measuring sleepiness tend to examine the general experience of sleepiness over the course of a day, but the SSS met a need for a scale measuring sleepiness in specific moments of time. Because it can be used to evaluate specific moments, the scale can be used repeatedly at different time intervals in a research study or for treatment intervention.

Use in other populations

Since the development of the SSS, there have been other more specific and more recently developed sleepiness rating scales, such as the

Epworth Sleepiness Scale The Epworth Sleepiness Scale (ESS) is a scale intended to measure daytime sleepiness that is measured by use of a very short questionnaire. This can be helpful in diagnosing sleep disorders. It was introduced in 1991 by Dr Murray Johns of Epworth ...

, which is more commonly used in other populations. Due to the fact that it has only been translated into English, it is not significantly used in other populations.

Limitations

The primary limitations of the Stanford Sleepiness Scale is that it is a self-report measure, because of this, levels of sleepiness may be over or under reported based on personal biases. The SSS is free to the general public and can be found in many forms online.

References

External links

SSS Available Online
{{Mental and behavioural disorders Diagnostic neurology Mental disorders screening and assessment tools