Glasgow Sleep Effort Scale

The Glasgow Sleep Effort Scale (GSES) is a brief instrument designed to measure the degree of mental and behavioral effort exerted in attempting to fall asleep. Developed by Broomfield and Espie in 2005, the GSES captures a key cognitive-behavioral maintenance mechanism in insomnia: excessive effort to sleep, anxiety about sleep performance, and counterproductive behaviors (trying hard to fall asleep, monitoring sleep, checking the clock) that paradoxically perpetuate sleep difficulty. The GSES is increasingly recognized as an important outcome measure for cognitive-behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I).