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Research Tools and Assessments

The following tools and assessments are available for research use. They were developed by our group, often in collaboration with other research groups. Although these were primarily developed for research, there may be clinical or other uses for these as well:

PVT-Touch: Psychomotor Vigilance Task for Android

The PVT was developed by Dr. David Dinges over 20 years ago and remains the most well-validated indicator of performance deficits attributable to sleep loss. This version was developed to work on touchscreen Android devices. The PVT-Touch software is free for non-commercial research use. For more information or to download the software, visit http://www.pvttouch.com.

The PVT Was developed in collaboration with Nathaniel Watson MD, Julie Kientz PhD, and Matthew Kay PhD. Evaluation and validation were assisted by undergraduate student Demi Ocano.

References:

Kay M, Rector K, Consolvo S, Greenstein B, Wobbrock JO, Watson NF, and Kientz JA. (2013). PVT-Touch: adapting a reaction time test for touchscreen devices. Proceedings of PervasiveHealth 2013: The 7th conference on pervasive computing technologies for healthcare. (https://faculty.washington.edu/wobbrock/pubs/ph-13.pdf)

Grandner, M. A., Watson, N. F., Kay, M., Ocano, D., and Kientz, J. A. (2018). Addressing the need for validation of a touchscreen psychomotor vigilance task: Important considerations for sleep health research. Sleep Health, 4(5): 387-389. PMID: 30241651. PMCID: PMC6152888. (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30241651/)


 

spaq

The SPAQ was developed over the course of several years to capture how and why people sleep the way they do in the real world. The questionnaire was built around health behavior theory, focued on the Health Belief Model, Theory of Planned Behavior, and Transtheoretical Model.

There are 151 items in the SPAQ across 16 subscales: (1) Sleep Duration, (2) Sleep Debt, (3) Sleep Quality, (4) Sleepiness/Tiredness, (5) Coping with Sleepiness, (6) Coping with Acute Insomnia, (7) Coping with Chronic Insomnia, (8) Activities in Bed, (9) Sleep Environment, (10) Knowledge, (11) Importance, (12) Impact on Sleep, (13) Impact of sleep, (14) Self-efficacy, (15) Sleep and Health, and (16) Social Norms. The SPAQ was designed to systematically assess a wide range of sleep-related beliefs and practices. As such, each subscale was designed so that it can be used independently, since there is no global score. Individuals with interests in any of those domains may find the SPAQ subscales useful.

The idea of the SPAQ was initially conceived by Nirav Patel MD MPH and the questionnaire was developed in collaboration with Dr. Patel, Nalaka Gooneratne MD MSc, and Nicholas Jackson PhD.

The SPAQ is available in English and Spanish. Other languages are coming soon. A scoring template with instructions is also available. The SPAQ is free to use for all non-commercial research purposes. It must be licensed for other purposes and cannot be re-distributed without permission.

Request the SPAQ here.

References:

Grandner, M. A., Jackson, N. J., Gooneratne, N. S., and Patel, N. P. (2014). The development of a questionnaire to assess sleep-related practices, beliefs and attitudes. Behavioral Sleep Medicine, 12 (2): 123-142. (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23514261/)

Grandner, M. A., Patel, N. P., Jean-Louis, G., Jackson, N. J., Gehrman, P. R., Perlis, M. L., and Gooneratne, N. (2013). Sleep-related behaviors and beliefs associated with race/ethnicity in women. Journal of the National Medical Association, 105 (1), 4-15. (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23862291)


 

brisc

The BRISC is a short, 4-item questionnaire that quickly quantifies the degree to which an individual is in control of his or her sleep. Many people do not get enough sleep because they do not have control over when they go to bed or wake up. This measure can be used to assess how much control a person has over their sleep, and this may be a key factor in helping people sleep better.

The BRISC was initially developed for the Sleep and Healthy Activity, Diet, Environment, and Socialization (SHADES) study, which was conducted in collaboration with Allan Pack MB ChB PhD, Michael Perlis PhD, Lauren Hale PhD, Charles Branas PhD, and Marna Barrett PhD. The scale itself was developed in collaboration with Rebecca Gallagher MDEd. Analysis and evaluation of the scale was performed with the assistance of Pamela Alfonso-Miller MD, Scott Killgore PhD, Sairam Parthasarathy MD, Jo-Ann Gehrels MS, and undergraduate student Kayla Olivier.

The BRISC is available in English and Spanish. A scoring template and instructions are also available. The BRISC is free to use for all non-commercial research purposes. It must be licensed for other purposes and cannot be re-distributed without permission.

Request the BRISC here.

Reference:

Grandner, M. A., Olivier, K., Gallagher, R. A., Hale, L., Barrett, M., Branas, C. C., Killgore, W. D. S., Parthasarathy, S., Gehrels, J., and Alfonso-Miller, P. (In Press). Quantifying impact of real-world barriers to sleep: The Brief Index of Sleep Control (BRISC). Sleep Health. (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32482573)


 

ase

The ASE was developed to quickly and comprehensively measure the degree to which the physical environment disturbs sleep. It is brief, easy to administer, and quick to score. The ASE has 13 items and quantifies the impact of light and dark, noise, small, humidity, comfort of sleeping surface and pillows, and safety.

The ASE was initially developed for the Sleep and Healthy Activity, Diet, Environment, and Socialization (SHADES) study, which was conducted in collaboration with Allan Pack MB ChB PhD, Michael Perlis PhD, Lauren Hale PhD, Charles Branas PhD, and Marna Barrett PhD. The scale itself was developed in collaboration with Rebecca Gallagher MDEd. Analysis and evaluation of the scale was performed with the assistance of Azizi Seixas PhD, Pamela Alfonso-Miller MD, Scott Killgore PhD, Jo-Ann Gehrels MS, and undergraduate student Kayla Olivier.

The ASE is available in English and Spanish. A scoring template and instructions are available. The ASE is free to use for non-commercial research purposes. It must be licensed for other purposes and cannot be re-distributed without permission.

Request the ASE here.

Reference:

Olivier, K., Gallagher, R. A., Killgore, W. D. S., Carrazco, N., Alfonso-Miller, P., Gehrels, J., and Grandner, M. A. (2016). Development and initial validation of the assessment of sleep environment: A novel inventory for describing and quantifying the impact of environmental factors on sleep. SLEEP, 39 (Abstract Supplement): A367.

 

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