How this Insomnia Risk Test calculates your score

This calculator converts your answers into a single 0–100 Insomnia Risk Score. It’s designed to feel intuitive: higher numbers mean more frequent, more severe sleep problems with bigger daytime consequences and a longer pattern.

The first part focuses on the classic insomnia complaints: sleep onset delay, night awakenings, early awakening, and sleep satisfaction. Each item is scored from 0–3 (0 = not a problem, 3 = major problem). We add them and scale to 0–60.

Insomnia becomes more meaningful when it affects your day and sticks around. The test adds points for daytime impact, how many nights per week, and how long it’s been happening. Each of those is scored 0–3 and scaled to contribute up to 35 points.

Lifestyle factors don’t “diagnose” insomnia, but they can raise risk. We add a small bonus for higher stress at bedtime, caffeine after 2pm, and screen time before bed. This cap is intentionally small (max 5) so the score mostly reflects your symptoms and daytime life, not a single habit.

• 0–24 (Low): Your pattern looks like normal sleep variability or short-term disruption.
• 25–49 (Mild–Moderate): You likely have recurring sleep difficulty. Worth improving habits and consistency.
• 50–74 (High): Your answers resemble a significant insomnia pattern with daytime effects.
• 75–100 (Very High): Strong insomnia risk — consider professional guidance (CBT‑I is commonly recommended).

Example score (so it feels real)

Imagine someone who takes 45 minutes to fall asleep most nights (2), wakes up 2–3 times (2), wakes up early 3–4 days/week (2), feels dissatisfied with sleep (2), and has moderate daytime impact (2). It’s happening 3–4 nights/week (2) for 1–3 months (2), with high stress (2), caffeine after 2pm sometimes (1), and 45–90 minutes of screens before bed (2).

That’s a lot of “2’s”. This test will usually land them somewhere in the high risk zone, because the pattern is frequent, persistent, and it affects daytime functioning.

• Pick one lever: caffeine cutoff, consistent wake time, or a 30‑minute wind‑down.
• Retake the test after 7–14 days and compare the saved scores.

Insomnia Risk Test — full breakdown (formula, interpretation, and FAQs)

“Insomnia” is one of those words that people use for everything — a bad night, jet lag, stress, too much coffee, or that time you watched a thriller at midnight and your brain decided to replay it in 4K. But in sleep science and clinical practice, insomnia is usually described as a pattern:

• Night symptoms: trouble falling asleep, trouble staying asleep, or waking too early.
• Day consequences: tiredness, low mood, irritability, foggy focus, lower performance, or safety risks.
• Persistence: it happens often enough and long enough that it’s not just “life happens.”

This calculator tries to capture that pattern in a way that’s easy to understand and share. It does not diagnose you, and it doesn’t replace a clinician or a sleep study. What it can do is help you answer a simple question: “Is my sleep problem small and short‑term, or is it starting to look like a real insomnia pattern?”

For virality and usefulness, the score needs to feel “obvious” when you read your result. That’s why the biggest weight goes to: (a) how hard sleep feels, (b) how much it affects your day, and (c) how persistent it is. Lifestyle factors are included, but they’re capped so the score doesn’t become “you had a latte at 4pm, therefore you’re doomed.” The goal is a fair snapshot that nudges you toward better choices without being dramatic.

The score is made from three parts:

• Core sleep symptoms (0–60): Four questions scored 0–3 each: time to fall asleep, waking during the night, waking too early, and overall satisfaction. The sum (0–12) is scaled to 0–60 using: (sum / 12) × 60.
• Impact + persistence (0–35): Three questions scored 0–3 each: daytime impact, nights per week, and duration. The sum (0–9) is scaled to 0–35 using: (sum / 9) × 35.
• Modifiers (0–5): small add‑ons for stress, caffeine timing, and screens. These are scaled and capped at 5 points total, so habits influence the score a little, but symptoms + impact still run the show.

Finally, we clamp the total to 0–100, round it, and map it to a label: Low, Mild–Moderate, High, or Very High.

Insomnia often shows up in three classic ways: you can’t fall asleep, you can’t stay asleep, or you wake earlier than you want. But the more important part is what happens after that: if you’re still functioning fine and it’s rare, it’s probably normal life variability. If it happens most nights and your day is falling apart, the problem is more serious. That’s why daytime impact and persistence can push your score much higher.

Use the ranges as a conversation starter with yourself — not a label you tattoo on your identity. Here’s how most people can use them:

• 0–24 (Low): A few rough nights, short‑term disruption, or “sleep is a little messy.” Focus on basics: consistent wake time, wind‑down, and don’t panic about sleep.
• 25–49 (Mild–Moderate): You likely have recurring trouble. This is the “fix it now before it becomes a thing” zone. Improvements here can be huge: caffeine timing, regular schedule, fewer late screens, and stress unloading.
• 50–74 (High): Your sleep pattern is frequent and annoying and it’s affecting your day. If you’ve been “pushing through,” this is the score that says: your sleep deserves real attention, not just willpower.
• 75–100 (Very High): Your answers look like a strong insomnia pattern. Consider professional support — many clinicians point people toward CBT‑I (Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia) as a first‑line approach. Also consider ruling out other sleep issues (like sleep apnea) if symptoms fit.

If you want a simple plan that works with this calculator, do a “one lever experiment”: pick one change, do it for 7 days, then retake the test. Examples:

• Wake time anchor: wake up at the same time every day (yes, weekends). This stabilizes your body clock.
• Caffeine cutoff: move the last caffeine earlier (try before 12–2pm).
• Wind‑down ritual: create a 30‑minute “sleep runway” (dim lights, stretching, shower, paper book, journaling).
• Screen downgrade: if you must use a phone, lower brightness and avoid doom‑scrolling content.
• Worry dump: write tomorrow’s tasks and worries on paper — your brain hates holding “open tabs.”

You don’t need perfection; you need consistency. Many people are shocked by how much their sleep improves when they stop treating bedtime like “collapse time” and start treating it like a landing sequence.

• Is this the same as the Insomnia Severity Index (ISI)?

  No. This is an original quick‑risk calculator inspired by common insomnia dimensions (symptoms, impact, frequency, duration). It’s designed for a simple shareable 0–100 score. If you want a clinically validated tool, ask a clinician about validated questionnaires.

• Can one bad week give me a high score?

  It can raise your score, especially if daytime impact is severe, but the duration and frequency questions help keep the test from overreacting to a single random night.

• What if I sleep 7–8 hours but still feel exhausted?

  The test focuses on insomnia‑style difficulty, but feeling unrefreshed can also come from sleep apnea, circadian mismatch, fragmented sleep, stress, medication effects, or depression. Consider professional guidance if exhaustion persists.

• Do naps affect insomnia risk?

  Naps can help short‑term sleepiness, but long or late naps can reduce sleep pressure at night. If your score is high, try a short nap (10–25 min) early afternoon, or pause naps for a week and see if nighttime sleep improves.

• Should I track this score daily?

  Daily tracking can increase sleep anxiety for some people. A weekly check is usually enough. If the score makes you more stressed, step back and focus on habits, not numbers.

Educational note: insomnia can be intertwined with stress, anxiety, depression, pain, medications, circadian rhythm issues, and other sleep disorders. If you suspect any of these, a clinician can help you narrow down the “real cause” faster than trial-and-error.

Make it shareable (viral-friendly)

If you want a clean share: run the test, then screenshot the score card. People love comparing sleep chaos in group chats — especially when there’s a simple label like “High Insomnia Risk” or “Mild–Moderate.”

• “Be honest… what’s your insomnia score?”
• “I thought I was ‘fine’ until I took this.”
• “Sleep check-in: I’m in my ‘wake up at 3am’ era.”
• “Retesting after 7 days of no caffeine after 2pm.”

• Dim lights 60 minutes before bed.
• Keep the bedroom cool and dark.
• Try a consistent wake time, even if sleep was rough.
• If you can’t sleep, avoid “clock watching.”