Prevalence of reported insomnia and its consequences in a survey of 5,044 adolescents in Kuwait

Study Objectives: To examine the psychometric characteristics of a short scale to assess insomnia complaints and their consequences, to estimate the prevalence rates of reported insomnia, and to explore the sex differences in reported insomnia. Methods: 5,044 male and female nonclinical secondary-school students in the State of Kuwait participated. Their ages ranged from 14 to 19 years. An insomnia scale (IS) comprising 12 items was administered in group sessions. It has acceptable test-retest and alpha reliabilities and good convergent validity. Two factors were disclosed: consequence of insomnia and difficulty in initiating and maintaining sleep. Point prevalence rate was computed as the summation of the percentages of responses in the two options: "Much" and "Very much" on each item during the most recent month. Results: The prevalence of the 12 IS items ranged from 6.4% to 31.7% in boys, and between 6.5% and 35.9% among girls. The highest reported insomnia complaint was early morning awakening, ie, 31.7% in boys, and 35.9% in girls. It was found that 14.6% of boys and 20.3% of girls reported difficulty initiating sleep, while 8.6% of boys and 15.7% of girls reported difficulty maintaining sleep. Girls had higher mean scores in most of the IS items. Conclusions: Adolescents in the present sample have reported high rates of insomnia. There is a great need to agree upon the methodology, especially the assessment tool, for epidemiology of sleep disorder research.