Mary Beth Miller, Cassandra L Boness, Sydney D Shoemaker, Katie R Moskal, Anna M Porter, Ashley F Curtis, Christina S McCrae
{"title":"Considering Substance Use in Dysfunctional Beliefs About Sleep: Validation of the DBAS-S.","authors":"Mary Beth Miller, Cassandra L Boness, Sydney D Shoemaker, Katie R Moskal, Anna M Porter, Ashley F Curtis, Christina S McCrae","doi":"10.1080/15402002.2026.2685145","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Objective: </strong>Alcohol and cannabis are commonly used as sleep aids that inadvertently perpetuate symptoms of insomnia over time, but substance use is not a standard component of sleep assessments. This pre-registered study aimed to expand the validity and clinical utility of the Dysfunctional Beliefs about Sleep Scale (DBAS) by incorporating substance use expectancies for sleep.</p><p><strong>Method: </strong>After using cognitive interviewing to improve the content validity of items (<i>N</i> = 24, age <i>M</i> = 33.3y, 83% female), iterative factor analyses and tests of external validation were used to refine and psychometrically evaluate the revised scale (full sample <i>N</i> = 966, age <i>M</i> = 42.6, 60% female, 65% with at least mild insomnia).</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>The final set of 11 items was best represented by two factors (9 sleep and 2 substance use items; <i>r</i> = 0.15). The sleep subscale was strongly correlated with the DBAS-16 (<i>r</i> = 0.95, <i>p</i> < .001) and demonstrated measurement invariance across those who did (<i>n</i> = 309) and did not (<i>n</i> = 318) drink alcohol. The substance use subscale (β = 0.16, <i>p</i> < .001) accounted for a small but significant amount of unique variance in insomnia severity (sleep subscale β = 0.59, <i>p</i> < .001) and demonstrated concurrent and prospective associations with alcohol/cannabis use. Surprisingly, the single cannabis belief item was more strongly associated with cannabis use than longer validated scales of cannabis sleep expectancies.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>The substance use version of the DBAS (DBAS-S) is a brief, reliable, and valid measure of dysfunctional sleep beliefs and substance use expectancies that will improve clinical practice by flagging substance use as a potential contributor to insomnia for clinicians.</p>","PeriodicalId":55393,"journal":{"name":"Behavioral Sleep Medicine","volume":" ","pages":"1-13"},"PeriodicalIF":2.0000,"publicationDate":"2026-06-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13455153/pdf/","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Behavioral Sleep Medicine","FirstCategoryId":"3","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1080/15402002.2026.2685145","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q3","JCRName":"CLINICAL NEUROLOGY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Objective: Alcohol and cannabis are commonly used as sleep aids that inadvertently perpetuate symptoms of insomnia over time, but substance use is not a standard component of sleep assessments. This pre-registered study aimed to expand the validity and clinical utility of the Dysfunctional Beliefs about Sleep Scale (DBAS) by incorporating substance use expectancies for sleep.
Method: After using cognitive interviewing to improve the content validity of items (N = 24, age M = 33.3y, 83% female), iterative factor analyses and tests of external validation were used to refine and psychometrically evaluate the revised scale (full sample N = 966, age M = 42.6, 60% female, 65% with at least mild insomnia).
Results: The final set of 11 items was best represented by two factors (9 sleep and 2 substance use items; r = 0.15). The sleep subscale was strongly correlated with the DBAS-16 (r = 0.95, p < .001) and demonstrated measurement invariance across those who did (n = 309) and did not (n = 318) drink alcohol. The substance use subscale (β = 0.16, p < .001) accounted for a small but significant amount of unique variance in insomnia severity (sleep subscale β = 0.59, p < .001) and demonstrated concurrent and prospective associations with alcohol/cannabis use. Surprisingly, the single cannabis belief item was more strongly associated with cannabis use than longer validated scales of cannabis sleep expectancies.
Conclusions: The substance use version of the DBAS (DBAS-S) is a brief, reliable, and valid measure of dysfunctional sleep beliefs and substance use expectancies that will improve clinical practice by flagging substance use as a potential contributor to insomnia for clinicians.
期刊介绍:
Behavioral Sleep Medicine addresses behavioral dimensions of normal and abnormal sleep mechanisms and the prevention, assessment, and treatment of sleep disorders and associated behavioral and emotional problems. Standards for interventions acceptable to this journal are guided by established principles of behavior change. Intending to serve as the intellectual home for the application of behavioral/cognitive science to the study of normal and disordered sleep, the journal paints a broad stroke across the behavioral sleep medicine landscape. Its content includes scholarly investigation of such areas as normal sleep experience, insomnia, the relation of daytime functioning to sleep, parasomnias, circadian rhythm disorders, treatment adherence, pediatrics, and geriatrics. Multidisciplinary approaches are particularly welcome. The journal’ domain encompasses human basic, applied, and clinical outcome research. Behavioral Sleep Medicine also embraces methodological diversity, spanning innovative case studies, quasi-experimentation, randomized trials, epidemiology, and critical reviews.