Page Last Updated: May 14, 2026
Brief Infant Sleep Questionnaire (BISQ-SF)🔗
| Table Name | ph_cg_bisq |
| Construct | Sleep |
| Study Visits | V04 |
| Administration |
Child-specific: Yes Respondent: Parent on Child Method: Remote survey (5 min estimated duration) | Quality Control | Monitor data dashboard for variable missingness, possible coding errors, scoring verification when needed, and data consistency. |
Incomplete Summary Scores
Item-level responses are provided for the whole cohort; summary scores are present for all participants except those with data obtained in the month prior to the cutoff date for data inclusion (June 1st, 2025). Summary scores from babysleep.com will be available in subsequent releases.
Spanish Administration
Note that it is not currently possible to determine which participants were administered the Spanish version of the BISQ; a language field will be added in a future release.
Appropriate Use
Scores are for research purposes only and are not for individual dissemination or clinical use.
Instrument Details🔗
The Brief Infant Sleep Questionnaire - Short Form (BISQ-SF) instrument has three subscales:
| Subscale | # Items | Construct |
|---|---|---|
| Infant Sleep (IS) | 5 | Sleep patterns: sleep onset latency, number and duration of night wakings, longest stretch of sleep, and total night sleep |
| Parent Perception (PP) | 3 | Caregiver perceptions of bedtime difficulty, overnight sleep, and overall child sleep problems |
| Parent Behavior (PB) | 11 | Sleep ecology: 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 |
When the child is mentioned, pronouns were changed from "he/she" to “the child” or gender-neutral pronouns for gender neutrality.
The BISQ-SF is scored in collaboration with the instrument developers (https://www.babysleep.com/BISQ/). Parent responses are uploaded to the Baby Sleep team who scores the instrument utilizing a proprietary algorithm and then sends scores back to the HBCD data team. Note that the BISQ-R SF (short form) includes 19 scored questions and one additional sleep duration question which is not scored.
From babysleep.com: 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. The Total score (T) is computed from the average of the 3 subscale scores.
References🔗
Mindell, J. A., Gould, R. A., Tikotzy, L., Leichman, E. S., & Walters, R. M. (2019). Norm-referenced scoring system for the Brief Infant Sleep Questionnaire - Revised (BISQ-R). Sleep Medicine, 63, 106–114. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sleep.2019.05.010
Sadeh, A. (2004). A brief screening questionnaire for infant sleep problems: validation and findings for an Internet sample. Pediatrics, 113(6), e570-7. https://doi.org/10.1542/peds.113.6.e570
Sadeh, A., Mindell, J. A., Luedtke, K., & Wiegand, B. (2009). Sleep and sleep ecology in the first 3 years: a web-based study. Journal of Sleep Research, 18(1), 60–73. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2869.2008.00699.x