Scoring
To have your data scored, please complete the application and terms of agreement form. As our terms are periodically modified, your team representative must sign the form that is current at the time of data submission. Your research must have approval from an Ethics or Institutional Review Board (IRB). No external data-sharing agreements will be signed.
Once approved, your team should email the data files to study@babysleep.com. The BISQ-R team will return your scores within approximately three weeks of submission. The instructions for submission and file formatting are available in the panel on the right side of this page.
BISQ-R
The Brief Infant Sleep Questionnaire (BISQ) was originally created by Dr. Avi Sadeh and has been completed on over 150,000 infants and toddlers. It has been expanded and revised from its original form and has been widely used in studies throughout the world. An age-based norm-referenced score has been developed. These norms are currently based on US data, with the intention of development of norms in other countries (see section below on translations). Scores are available for children from birth through 36 months of age.
Validation
Validation of the BISQ and BISQ-R has been published, including the following:
- Sadeh A. A brief screening questionnaire for infant sleep problems: Validation and findings for an Internet sample. Pediatrics. 2004;113:e570-e7.
- Mindell JA, Sadeh A, Wiegand B, How TH, Goh DY. Cross-cultural differences in infant and toddler sleep. Sleep Med. 2010;11:274-80.
- Sadeh A, Mindell JA, Luedtke K, Wiegand B. Sleep and sleep ecology in the first 3 years: a web-based study. J Sleep Res. 2009;18:60-73.
- Cassanello P, Díez-Izquierdo A, Gorina N, Matilla-Santander N, Martínez-Sanchez JM, Balaguer A. Adaptation and study of the measurement properties of a sleep questionnaire for infants and pre-school children. Anales de Pediatría (English Edition). 2018;89:230-7.
- Tikotzky L, Volkovich E. Infant nocturnal wakefulness: a longitudinal study comparing three sleep assessment methods. Sleep. 2019;42.
Support for the development of the norm-referenced scoring system is referenced below:
- Mindell JA, Gould RA, Tikotzky L, Leichman ES, & Walters RM. (2019). Normative scoring system for the Brief Infant Sleep Questionnaire – Revised (BISQ-R). Sleep Medicine, 63, 106 – 114.
BISQ-R and BISQ-R SF
Two versions of the BISQ-R are provided:
- BISQ-R: The BISQ-R is the complete, expanded version and includes the 19 questions that comprise the scoring system.
- BISQ-R SF: The BISQ-R SF (short form) includes the scored questions plus additional questions related to daytime sleep.
BISQ-R scores
Scores on each subscale and the total score are scaled from 0 to 100, with higher scores denoting better sleep quality, more positive perception of infant sleep, and parent behaviors that promote healthy and independent sleep. Scores are for research purposes only and are not for individual dissemination or clinical use.
- Infant Sleep (IS) subscale: 5 questions regarding sleep patterns: sleep onset latency, number and duration of night wakings, longest stretch of sleep, and total night sleep
- Parent Perception (PP) subscale: 3 questions regarding caregiver perceptions of bedtime difficulty, overnight sleep, and overall child sleep problems.
- Parent Behavior (PB) subscale: 11 questions about sleep ecology, including bedtime routine consistency, bedtime, parental behavior at time of sleep onset and following night wakings, and sleep locations at time of sleep onset and following night wakings.
- Total score (T): Average of the 3 subscale scores
Translations of the BISQ-R
The BISQ and the BISQ-R have been translated into a number of languages.
As of October 2022, we have versions of the BISQ-R (short and/or full form) in the languages listed below.
Note that these documents may need to be 1) finalized by your team and/or 2) reviewed by your research team to ensure linguistic and cultural appropriateness for your specific region or participant group.
Chinese
Czech (short form only)
Farsi (short form only)
French Canadian (short form only)
German
Hebrew
Hindi
Hungarian
Indonesian
Italian
Portuguese (short form only)
Spanish
Turkish
If you have a version that has already been translated, we would appreciate obtaining a copy so that we can share it with other researchers.
If you would like to work with our team to translate the BISQ-R or BISQ-R SF, contact us at study@babysleep.com. The procedure is typically as follows:
1) Your research team will translate the questionnaire into the desired language appropriate for your participants, obtain an independent English back-translation, and email the back-translation to our team.
2) The BISQ-R team will review the English back-translation, comparing it to the original English version to ensure accurate meaning. We will then return the document with any suggested revisions.
3) Your team completes revisions as necessary and shares the final translated document with the BISQ-R team, so it is accessible to other researchers.
Requirements for any subsequent publications/presentations
Please note that any research or otherwise published summary for dissemination should include:
Methods section: Inclusion of reference to development and BISQ-R scoring in methods section:
- Mindell JA, Gould RA, Tikotzky L, Leichman ES, & Walters RM. (2019). Norm-referenced scoring system for the Brief Infant Sleep Questionnaire – Revised (BISQ-R). Sleep Medicine, 63, 106 – 114.
No authorship is required or requested on any publications resulting from the use of the BISQ-R in approved projects, unless active involvement in the study by one of the authors is mutually agreed upon.