Instrumentation to describe subjective sleep characteristics in healthy subjects.

The purpose of this study was to develop and test the Verran and Snyder-Halpern (VSH) Sleep Scale, an instrument to subjectively measure sleep characteristics. Four major sleep factors and their associated characteristics were proposed for the Sleep Scale. Subjects completed three randomly ordered sleep questionnaires on three consecutive weekday mornings within the first two hours after arising. Scales included the VSH Sleep Scale, a sleep questionnaire and a sleep log. The VSH Sleep Scale had a reliability coefficient of .82 (theta). Construct validity was examined by factor analysis and correlations between Sleep Scale items and corresponding items on the two other study instruments. Scale validity also was assessed by the known groups method. Beginning support for the validity of the VSH Sleep Scale is provided.