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

This article discusses the development and validation of the Insomnia in Response to Sports-related Stress Test (IRSST) questionnaire, aimed at measuring sleep disturbance in elite athletes due to sport-specific stressful situations. Here are the key points and takeaways:

Background and Need: Elite athletes often experience high levels of stress from training, competition, and personal expectations, leading to poor sleep quality. Existing tools like the FIRST questionnaire lacked specificity to sports-related stressors.

Development of IRSST: The IRSST questionnaire consists of six items specifically designed to assess sleep disturbance in response to common sport-specific stressful situations like competition, training, and injury.

Validation Process: The validation process included:

• Substantive Stage: Ensuring each item captured the intended construct (vulnerability to sport-specific stress).
• Structural Stage: Confirming the questionnaire’s reliability and factorial validity through factor analysis, with all items loading strongly on a single factor.
• External Stage: Establishing construct validity by correlating IRSST scores with those from the FIRST questionnaire, showing a moderate correlation.

Psychometric Properties: The IRSST demonstrated good reliability and promising construct validity, suggesting it effectively measures sleep disruption in athletes due to sports-related stress.

Future Directions: The study suggests further research could include objective measures of sleep (e.g., actigraphy), replication with athletes at different competitive levels, and longitudinal studies to explore causal relationships between IRSST scores and sleep outcomes.

Implications: The IRSST could serve as a valuable screening tool for identifying athletes at risk of sleep disturbances related to sports-specific stressors. This could enable targeted interventions to optimize sleep and improve overall performance and well-being.