Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index
The Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index is a self-report of recent sleep quality and disturbance. This page is for clinics. It is not a sleep-disorder diagnosis and not a public test.
Overview
What is the PSQI?
The PSQI covers several sleep-quality domains rather than a single dozing question. Clinics use it to organise sleep-history collection. It does not replace a sleep study, insomnia diagnosis, or medical review.
Development and clinical use
Buysse and colleagues published the PSQI in 1989 as a sleep-quality instrument for clinical and research use. Later work has examined its components and global score.
- Mode
- Patient self-report
- Focus
- Sleep quality and disturbance
- Typical use
- Sleep-clinic intake
- Not a sleep study
- No physiology recorded
- Clinical role
- Sleep-quality context
- Diagnosis
- Not established by score
Administration
A focused client experience
The respondent answers the past-month sleep questions. Partner items are asked only when a bed partner or room mate is reported, and they are not in the total.
- One question at a time with visible progress
- Large keyboard-operable response choices
- Previous, next, and answer-review steps
- Clear confirmation that results go to the clinic
The illustration shows layout only. It does not reproduce PSQI item wording.
Report showcase
Designed to make evidence easy to review
The downloadable synthetic example illustrates report layout using invented response patterns, without patient data or instrument questions.
- Named instrument, version, and provenance
- Item-level response pattern without source wording
- Methodology, references, and clinical boundary
- Responsible clinician review rather than automated conclusions
Clinician review required
Methodology
Understand the measure and its scoring conventions
Lirena scores seven components and adds them for a total from 0 to 21. There is no total band. A total below 5 is associated with good sleep quality. A total above 5 is associated with poor sleep quality. A total of 5 meets neither. Duration scores 0 above 7 hours, 1 at 6 or 7 hours, 2 from 5 hours up to 6, and 3 below 5. The result supports clinician review and is not a diagnosis.
References
- Original PSQI paperBuysse DJ et al. The Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index. Psychiatry Research. 1989;28(2):193-213.
Questions
What clinics ask before they evaluate the PSQI
These answers stay inside educational catalogue scope. They do not replace official manuals or clinician judgement.
Is PSQI a sleep-apnoea test?
No. It is a sleep-quality self-report. Diagnosis of a specific sleep disorder remains a clinician task and may require investigation.
Can I complete PSQI here?
No. This landing does not collect answers or return a score.
How is PSQI used on Lirena?
As a sleep-intake self-report. Clinicians review domain patterns with history rather than treating a global score as a diagnosis.
Is ESS the same as PSQI?
No. ESS asks about daytime dozing. PSQI asks about sleep quality and disturbance. They answer different clinical questions.