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Sleep Quality Score Quiz — Your 7 Sleep Domains Assessed

Most people rate their sleep as "fine" until they see their numbers. The Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index — used in over 34,000 peer-reviewed studies — identifies seven distinct domains of sleep health. This quiz maps to all seven, adds circadian rhythm and sleep hygiene scoring, and converts your results into a HealthIQ Sleep Score out of 100 with a personalised breakdown of exactly where your sleep is being disrupted.

😴 Based on PSQI + Sleep Hygiene Index

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🎯 7 Sleep Domains

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Sleep Quality Score Quiz 12 questions across 7 PSQI-validated sleep domains

Question 1 of 12 0%

Question 1 of 12

Domain: Sleep Duration

How many hours of actual sleep do you typically get per night?

Adults need 7-9 hours. Both under-sleeping and over-sleeping (above 9 hours regularly) are associated with negative health outcomes.

7 to 9 hours — the recommended range

6 to 7 hours — slightly short

5 to 6 hours — noticeably sleep-deprived

Under 5 hours or over 9 hours — outside the healthy range

Question 2 of 12

Domain: Sleep Latency

How long does it typically take you to fall asleep after getting into bed?

Sleep onset latency above 30 minutes is a clinical marker of insomnia. Healthy sleep latency is 10-20 minutes.

Under 15 minutes — I fall asleep quickly

15 to 30 minutes — takes a little while

30 to 60 minutes — takes quite a long time

Over 60 minutes or I frequently cannot sleep at all

Question 3 of 12

Domain: Sleep Efficiency

What proportion of your time in bed are you actually asleep?

Sleep efficiency below 85% — time asleep divided by time in bed — is a diagnostic criterion for insomnia disorder.

Above 90% — I sleep most of the time I am in bed

85 to 90% — mostly asleep with minor waking

75 to 85% — frequent waking or lying awake

Below 75% — I spend significant time in bed awake

Question 4 of 12

Domain: Sleep Disturbances

How often do you wake during the night for any reason?

Frequent night waking fragments sleep architecture, reducing slow-wave and REM sleep — the most restorative stages.

Rarely or never — I sleep through most nights

Once or twice per week — occasional waking

Three or four times per week — regular disruption

Almost every night — persistent night waking

Question 5 of 12

Domain: Subjective Sleep Quality

How would you rate your overall sleep quality over the past month?

Subjective sleep quality is the single strongest predictor of daytime functioning, even when objective sleep metrics are normal.

Very good — I feel rested most mornings

Fairly good — mostly okay with some tired mornings

Fairly poor — I often feel unrefreshed on waking

Very poor — I rarely feel rested regardless of hours slept

Question 6 of 12

Domain: Daytime Dysfunction

How often does poor sleep affect your ability to function during the day?

Daytime impairment from poor sleep — difficulty concentrating, drowsiness, reduced performance — is a key diagnostic criterion for clinical sleep disorders.

Rarely — my sleep does not affect daytime function

Occasionally — sometimes tired or less sharp after poor nights

Frequently — regularly affects concentration or energy

Almost daily — persistent daytime impairment from poor sleep

Question 7 of 12

Domain: Sleep Medication Use

How often do you use any substance or medication to help you sleep?

Including prescription medication, over-the-counter aids, melatonin, alcohol, or cannabis. Reliance on sleep aids indicates underlying sleep difficulty.

Never — I do not use anything to help sleep

Rarely — once or twice a month at most

Sometimes — once or twice a week

Regularly — three or more times per week

Question 8 of 12

Domain: Sleep Hygiene — Schedule

How consistent is your bedtime and wake time across weekdays and weekends?

Irregular sleep schedules disrupt circadian rhythm. Social jetlag — the difference between weekday and weekend sleep timing — independently predicts poor sleep quality.

Very consistent — within 30 minutes most days

Fairly consistent — within about an hour

Variable — 1-2 hours difference on weekends

Highly variable — sleep and wake times shift by more than 2 hours

Question 9 of 12

Domain: Sleep Hygiene — Light

How much screen use (phone, TV, computer) do you do in the hour before bed?

Blue light from screens suppresses melatonin production and delays sleep onset. The Harvard Medical School estimates a 1-3 hour melatonin delay from evening screen use.

None or minimal — screens off at least an hour before bed

Some — reduced screen use in the final hour

Moderate — phone or TV use right up until sleep

Heavy — screens in bed until I fall asleep

Question 10 of 12

Domain: Sleep Hygiene — Stimulants

When do you typically have your last caffeinated drink of the day?

Caffeine has a half-life of 5-7 hours. A coffee at 3pm still has 50% of its caffeine active at 8-10pm — enough to measurably disrupt sleep architecture even if you can fall asleep.

Before midday — or I do not drink caffeine

12pm to 2pm — early afternoon cutoff

2pm to 5pm — mid-to-late afternoon

After 5pm — evening caffeine use

Question 11 of 12

Domain: Sleep Environment

How would you describe your sleeping environment?

Core temperature drop of 1-2°C signals sleep onset. Light and noise independently fragment sleep architecture even when you are not consciously aware of them.

Optimal — dark, quiet, cool (around 18°C / 65°F)

Mostly good — occasional noise or light disruption

Suboptimal — regular noise, light, or temperature issues

Poor — noisy, bright, or too warm most nights

Question 12 of 12

Domain: Sleep Restoration

How do you typically feel within the first hour of waking up?

Morning alertness is the most practical indicator of whether your sleep was restorative. Persistent morning grogginess suggests insufficient slow-wave or REM sleep regardless of total hours.

Alert and ready — feel rested within 15-20 minutes

Fairly alert — take about 30 minutes to feel awake

Groggy — takes an hour or more to feel alert

Very groggy or exhausted — rarely feel rested in the morning

HealthIQ Sleep Score —

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—Sleep Quality

—Duration

—Sleep Hygiene

—Top Issue

Your 7 Sleep Domain Scores

Your Priority Sleep Fixes

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What Bad Sleep Actually Does to Your Body

Most people treat poor sleep as an inconvenience — something that makes the next day harder. The research tells a different story. A 2019 study published in Nature Communications found that people who slept six hours or fewer per night had a 30% higher risk of dementia compared to those sleeping seven to eight hours. Sleep is not recovery from life. It is a biological process without which the brain literally cannot clear the metabolic waste products that accumulate during waking hours.

The glymphatic system — the brain's waste clearance mechanism — is 60% more active during sleep than waking. This is when amyloid beta and tau proteins are flushed out — the same proteins that accumulate in Alzheimer's disease. Every night of poor sleep is a missed clearance cycle. Over years, this adds up in ways that are not reversible.

Short-term consequences are well-documented: impaired glucose metabolism after one night of partial sleep deprivation (comparable to prediabetes in some studies), elevated cortisol, suppressed immune function, reduced testosterone in men by 10-15% after five nights of six-hour sleep. Long-term poor sleep is independently associated with cardiovascular disease, obesity, type 2 diabetes, depression, and all-cause mortality.

PSQI Scoring: The Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index measures seven components: subjective sleep quality, sleep latency, sleep duration, habitual sleep efficiency, sleep disturbances, sleep medication use, and daytime dysfunction. Each component scores 0-3. A global score above 5 indicates "poor sleeper" status — equivalent to a HealthIQ Sleep Score below roughly 65 on this quiz.

The 7 Sleep Domains This Quiz Assesses

Sleep Duration

The National Sleep Foundation's consensus recommendation for adults is 7-9 hours. Below 7 hours, most adults show measurable impairments. Below 6 hours, the impairments are substantial. Importantly, chronic sleep restriction is not fully compensated by weekend recovery — the accumulated cognitive debt from weekday sleep deprivation does not resolve with two nights of longer sleep, as shown in research by Penn Sleep Center's Dr. David Dinges.

Sleep Latency

Healthy sleep onset takes 10-20 minutes. Taking more than 30 minutes to fall asleep on at least three nights per week for three months meets diagnostic criteria for insomnia. Consistently falling asleep immediately (under 5 minutes) can actually indicate excessive daytime sleepiness — a sign of sleep deprivation rather than efficient sleep.

Sleep Efficiency

Sleep efficiency — time asleep divided by time in bed — should be above 85% in healthy adults. People with insomnia often have efficiencies below 70%. Ironically, the most evidence-based treatment for insomnia (Cognitive Behavioural Therapy for Insomnia, CBT-I) temporarily worsens efficiency through sleep restriction before improving it — training the brain to associate bed with sleep rather than wakefulness.

Sleep Disturbances and Architecture

A typical sleep night cycles through 4-6 cycles of NREM and REM sleep. The early cycles are dominated by slow-wave (deep) sleep — the most physically restorative stage. REM sleep, concentrated in the second half of the night, is critical for memory consolidation and emotional regulation. Waking in the first half of the night disrupts slow-wave sleep. Waking early or using alcohol (which suppresses REM) disrupts emotional processing and memory formation.

Sleep Hygiene — The Four Factors

Sleep hygiene encompasses the behavioural and environmental factors that support or undermine sleep quality. The four most evidence-backed interventions are: consistent sleep-wake timing (anchor your circadian rhythm), light exposure management (bright light in the morning, darkness in the evening), temperature control (bedroom at 16-19°C / 60-66°F), and caffeine cutoff (ideally before noon, certainly before 2pm for most adults).

Domain	Healthy Range	Poor Threshold	Primary Fix
Sleep Duration	7-9 hours	Under 6 or over 9	Consistent bedtime
Sleep Latency	10-20 minutes	Over 30 minutes	Wind-down routine
Sleep Efficiency	Above 85%	Below 75%	CBT-I techniques
Night Waking	Rare	3+ nights/week	Sleep apnea screen
Sleep Hygiene	Consistent habits	Irregular/poor habits	Sleep schedule + light
Daytime Function	Alert and focused	Daily impairment	Duration + efficiency
Medication Reliance	None needed	3+ nights/week	CBT-I, address root cause

The One Thing That Works Better Than Any Sleep Supplement

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy for Insomnia (CBT-I) has been shown in meta-analyses to outperform sleep medication for chronic insomnia — with lasting effects, compared to medication's tolerance development. Its core components: stimulus control (use bed only for sleep), sleep restriction (build sleep pressure through temporary curtailment), sleep hygiene optimisation, and cognitive restructuring (addressing anxious thoughts about sleep).

The reason most people do not do CBT-I is that it is counterintuitive and temporarily uncomfortable. Sleep restriction — deliberately spending fewer hours in bed to consolidate sleep — makes people feel worse before they feel better. But it is by far the most evidence-backed non-pharmacological treatment for chronic insomnia, with response rates of 70-80% in clinical trials.

Frequently Asked Questions

The National Sleep Foundation's consensus recommendation for adults aged 18-64 is 7-9 hours. Adults over 65 may need slightly less — 7-8 hours. Individual variation exists, but people who claim to function well on 5-6 hours generally show measurable cognitive impairments they are not subjectively aware of — a phenomenon researchers call "sleepiness blindness." Genuine short-sleepers (people who thrive on under 6 hours) exist but are extremely rare — estimated at under 3% of the population.

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy for Insomnia (CBT-I) is the first-line treatment recommended by the American Academy of Sleep Medicine and the American College of Physicians — above sleep medication. It produces lasting improvements in 70-80% of cases, while medication produces tolerance and dependence over time. CBT-I typically involves sleep restriction, stimulus control, sleep hygiene, and addressing anxious thoughts about sleep. Digital CBT-I programmes (apps) have been validated in clinical trials and are significantly more accessible than in-person therapy.

Alcohol reduces sleep onset time — which is why people use it as a sleep aid — but significantly disrupts sleep architecture. It suppresses REM sleep in the first half of the night, then causes rebound wakefulness in the second half as it is metabolised. Regular alcohol use leads to less restorative slow-wave sleep and fragmented REM sleep. Matthew Walker's sleep research at Berkeley describes alcohol as one of the most effective REM sleep suppressants known — at doses most people consider moderate.

Caffeine works by blocking adenosine receptors. Adenosine is a sleep-pressure chemical that accumulates during waking hours — the longer you are awake, the more adenosine builds, and the sleepier you feel. Caffeine blocks this signal without clearing the adenosine. With a half-life of 5-7 hours (longer in some individuals), an afternoon coffee still has substantial receptor blockade at 10pm. Andrew Huberman and Matthew Walker both recommend a caffeine cutoff of 1-2pm to allow full adenosine clearance before typical sleep times.

Partially, but not fully. A 2019 study in Current Biology found that weekend recovery sleep does not reverse the metabolic and performance impairments of chronic weekday sleep restriction. The cognitive debt accumulates. Moreover, sleeping in on weekends shifts your circadian rhythm — creating social jetlag — which makes Monday morning even harder and perpetuates the cycle. The most effective approach is to protect weekday sleep duration rather than compensate at weekends.

The HealthIQ Sleep Score reflects your overall sleep quality across seven PSQI-validated domains plus sleep hygiene and environment factors. A score of 80-100 indicates good sleep across most dimensions. 60-79 indicates fair sleep with identifiable areas for improvement. Below 60 indicates poor sleep quality that is likely affecting daytime functioning, metabolic health, and long-term disease risk. The score is a practical benchmark — not a clinical diagnosis. If you suspect a sleep disorder such as apnea, consult a doctor.

Medical Disclaimer: This quiz is based on validated sleep research and the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index framework. It is for informational purposes only and does not diagnose sleep disorders. If you suspect sleep apnea, clinical insomnia, or another sleep disorder, consult a qualified healthcare provider or sleep specialist.