Epworth Sleepiness Scale

Technical Manual

Script Author: Katja Borchert, Ph.D. (katjab@millisecond.com), Millisecond

Created: January 09, 2013

Last Modified: January 12, 2023 by K. Borchert (katjab@millisecond.com), Millisecond

Script Copyright © Millisecond Software, LLC

Background

This script implements the Epworth Sleepiness Scale (ESS) as described in: Johns, M.W. (1991). A new method for measuring daytime sleepiness: The Epworth sleepiness scale. Sleep, 14, 540-545.

This script uses the 1997 version of the ESS which includes a small revision of the original 1991 instructions. The script uses radioButtons instead of textboxes.

More information on the ESS (as well as instruction revisions done in 1997): https://epworthsleepinessscale.com/

Duration

1 minute

Overview

Script offers an optional surveyPage that collects demographics (-> see section Editable Parameters parameters.skipdemographics),
followed by a surveyPage that presents the 8 ESS questions. By default the 8 ESS questions cannot be skipped.
At the end, an optional feedback page offers feedback in the form of the totalscore and a generic interpretation
of the ESS scores. The feedback is not original to the ESS and can be edited under section Editable Stimuli (item.feedback)
or can be skipped altogether, see section Editable Parameters -> parameters.skipfeedback (default setting).

Summary Data

File Name: ess_summary*.iqdat

Data Fields

NameDescription
inquisit.version Inquisit version number
computer.platform Device platform: win | mac |ios | android
startDate Date the session was run
startTime Time the session was run
subjectId Participant ID
groupId Group number
sessionId Session number
elapsedTime Session duration in ms
completed 0 = Test was not completed
1 = Test was completed
textbox.name.response Name response if applicable (by default, demographic questions are skipped)
textbox.age.response Age response if applicable (by default, demographic questions are skipped)
dropdown.gender.response Gender response if applicable (by default, demographic questions are skipped)
totalScore The participant's total ESS score
Note
In general, the higher the score, the higher your daytime sleepiness.
The general guideline is that a score at or below 10 is within normal range.
It's important to note that
A) higher scores by themselves are not diagnostic of any sleep disorder.
B) a score at or below 10 does not exclude the diagnosis of a sleep disorder.
calculation of totalscore
Based on info from https://epworthsleepinessscale.com/ rational numbers that are not integers (e.g. 1.5)
are sometimes chosen by participants on the paper test. While not encouraged, choosing rational numbers
other than integers doesn't invalidate the answer.
The totalscore in this script takes all responses and adds them up and only then rounds it to the nearest integer.

Raw Data

File Name: ess.iqdat

Data Fields

NameDescription
date Date the session was run
time Time the session was run
subject, group, session With the current subject/groupnumber/session id
build Inquisit version number
q*_response Response given (in assigned values)
Scale: 0 (never) - 3 (high chance)
no reversed scored questions
q*_latency How much time (in ms) the participant spent on the surveyPage with this particular
question (the last time this particular surveyPage was visited)

Parameters

The procedure can be adjusted by setting the following parameters.

NameDescriptionDefault
skipDemographics False = script does collect demographic data
true = script does NOT collect demographic data (default)
skipFeedback False = script does provide feedback to participants
true = script does NOT provide feedback to participants (default)
to customize feedback go to EDITABLE CODE -> Editable Stimuli