Pre-Sleep Arousal Scale (PSAS): Translation and Evaluation of Its Psychometric Properties in an Arabic Version

The Pre-Sleep Arousal Scale (PSAS) is a well-recognized instrument utilized for measuring cognitive and somatic arousal before sleep. Although the PSAS is useful, an Arabic version of the scale has not yet been developed and validated. The current study aimed to translate the PSAS into Arabic language and evaluate its psychometric properties, such as reliability and validity, in an Arabic-speaking population.

A cross-sectional survey was conducted with 438 participants who completed the Arabic version of the PSAS, along with other validated measures of insomnia, anxiety, and sleep effort.

The results indicated that the Arabic version of the PSAS maintained the original scale's two-factor structure. The factor loadings for PSAS-Cognitive ranged from 0.57 to 0.75, and for PSAS-Somatic, from 0.45 to 0.70, with all loadings being statistically significant (p < 0.001). The Arabic version of the PSAS exhibited high internal consistency (McDonald's ω = 0.86; Cronbach's α = 0.86; Guttman's λ2 = 0.86; Greatest Lower Bound = 0.90) and test-retest reliability (ICC = 0.88) over two weeks. The PSAS demonstrated good concurrent and convergent validity. We documented significant large differences between individuals with "no insomnia" and those with "insomnia" symptoms across cognitive, somatic, and total pre-sleep arousal (all p <0.001). The insomnia group consistently scored higher scores for PSAP and its subscales.

These findings suggest that the Arabic version of the PSAS is a reliable and valid tool for assessing pre-sleep arousal in Arabic-speaking individuals.