# Development and evaluation of the psychometric properties of a new measure of athlete insomnia: Insomnia in Response to Sports‐related Stress Test questionnaire

## TL;DR

The IRSST questionnaire is a new tool to measure sleep problems in athletes caused by sports-related stress.

## Contribution

The IRSST is a novel, validated questionnaire specifically designed for elite athletes to assess sleep disruption due to sports-specific stress.

## Key findings

- The IRSST showed strong construct validity and reliability with a Cronbach's alpha of 0.77.
- The IRSST correlated moderately with the FIRST questionnaire (r = 0.47).
- Exploratory factor analysis supported a one-factor structure for the IRSST.

## Abstract

To develop and validate the Insomnia in Response to Sports‐related Stress Test (IRSST) questionnaire, a new specific instrument with the goal of sensitively measuring vulnerability to sport‐specific stressful situations among elite athletes. Five hundred and thirty‐one competitive elite athletes (mean age = 17.6 ± 4.4 years) completed the Ford Insomnia Response to Stress Test (FIRST) questionnaire and the IRSST, a six‐item questionnaire developed to assess the level of sleep disturbance in response to the commonly experienced sport‐specific stressful situations. A development and validation process including substantive, structural, and external stages was used in the present study. One eigenvalue of the exploratory factor analyses was greater than 1.0 (i.e., 2.91, 48.52% of explained variance) whereas the scree test provided evidence for a one‐factor solution, with all the six items achieving a loading of 0.40 or higher on the factor. Cronbach alpha was 0.77 and provided evidence for the reliability of the IRSST score. The correlation between IRSST and FIRST scores was 0.47 (p < 0.001, moderate effect size). These results provide strong evidence for construct validity, indicating that the IRSST is a promising scale for assessing the likelihood of sleep disruption due to sports‐related stressful situations. The results of reliability and correlational analyses provided further evidence of the promising psychometric properties of the IRSST. We believe that the IRSST could provide to the sport and sleep science communities a sleep screening tool for use in this unique population.

The Insomnia in Response to Sports‐related Stress Test (IRSST) questionnaire is a promising new specific instrument for assessing the likelihood of sleep disruption due to sports‐related stressful situationsThe IRSST could provide to the sport and sleep science communities a sleep screening tool for use in the unique population of competitive elite athletesThe IRSST can be used to identify athletes with sleep difficulties related to sports‐specific stressful situations (e.g., training, competition, injury)

The Insomnia in Response to Sports‐related Stress Test (IRSST) questionnaire is a promising new specific instrument for assessing the likelihood of sleep disruption due to sports‐related stressful situations

The IRSST could provide to the sport and sleep science communities a sleep screening tool for use in the unique population of competitive elite athletes

The IRSST can be used to identify athletes with sleep difficulties related to sports‐specific stressful situations (e.g., training, competition, injury)