Beliefs About Sleep
Beliefs about sleep
Did you know that faulty beliefs and excessive worry about sleep can make insomnia worse? Are your thoughts about sleep causing you to lose sleep? Dr. Charles Morin and colleagues created a 16 question assessment to help you learn about your own beliefs and attitude toward insomnia. There are no right or wrong answers. However, higher scores could indicate that the strong belief or attitude could be a trigger for worry or concern about insomnia making it harder to fall asleep at night.
For each statement, move the slider from 0 to 10 to correspond with your own personal belief, even if it does not apply directly to your situation.
1) I need 8 hours of sleep to feel refreshed and function well during the day.
2) When I don't get the proper amount of sleep on a given night, I need to catch up on the next day by napping or on the next night by sleeping longer.
3) I am concerned that chronic insomnia may have serious consequences on my physical health.
4) I am worried that I may lose control over my abilities to sleep.
5) After a poor night’s sleep, I know that it will interfere with my daily activities on the next day.
6) In order to be alert and function well during the day, I believe I would be better off taking a sleeping pill rather than having a poor night’s sleep.
7) When I feel irritable, depressed, or anxious during the day, it is mostly because I did not sleep well the night before.
8) When I sleep poorly on one night, I know it will disturb my sleep schedule for the whole week.
9) Without an adequate night’s sleep, I can hardly function the next day.
10) I can’t ever predict whether I’ll have a good or poor night’s sleep.
11) I have little ability to manage the negative consequences of disturbed sleep.
12) When I feel tired, have no energy, or just seem not to function well during the day, it is generally because I did not sleep well the night before.
13) I believe insomnia is essentially the result of a chemical imbalance.
14) I feel insomnia is ruining my ability to enjoy life and prevents me from doing what I want.
15) Medication is probably the only solution to sleeplessness.
16) I avoid or cancel obligations (social, family) after a poor night’s sleep.
The 16-item Dysfunctional Beliefs and Attitudes About Sleep (DBAS-16) assessment. © Charles Morin, 1993