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Sleep Apnea Risk Calculator (Eight Risk Factors)

Eight yes or no questions about your body, your blood pressure and what happens while you sleep, modeled on the structure of the eight-factor screen that Chung and colleagues published in 2008. You get a risk band from 0 to 8, a split between the facts and the symptoms, and a clear description of the home sleep test route.

  • Screener
  • About 3 min
  • Original items: eight yes or no risk factors, educational bands
  • Runs in your browser, nothing is sent
  • Medical review: Medical review pending
Start the test

What this calculator sorts out

Obstructive sleep apnea is common, under-recognized and treatable. The eight factors here are the ones that keep turning up in the research as the best quick predictors of it. The calculator counts how many apply to you and tells you what that count has meant in published studies of the model it is based on.

  1. 8

    Risk factors, counted

    Four facts you can look up or measure (age, sex, neck size, body mass index), one about blood pressure, and three about what happens at night and the day after. Each one counts one point, for a score of 0 to 8. Nothing is weighted, because the published model it follows is also a simple count.

  2. 3

    An educational band

    Few, several or most of the eight factors. The bands sit at the cut points published for the original questionnaire, which this page does not reproduce, so they are offered for orientation rather than as a validated score. The band text says what each range has meant in published cohorts and what the sensible next step is.

  3. 2

    Facts versus symptoms

    The breakdown shows how many points came from fixed facts about your body and how many from things you or a bed partner have noticed. Four points from symptoms with none from the facts is a different conversation from the reverse, and the breakdown makes that visible.

How this compares with a typical online quiz

FeatureTypical free quizRegenerated.com
Names the model it is built onSometimesYes, the published screen (Chung 2008), named once as the model
Copies the licensed questionnaire wordingOften, without permissionNo, the items here are original
Explains what the bands mean in real cohortsRarelyYes, with sensitivity figures from the validation studies
Splits body facts from symptomsNoYes, in the breakdown
Describes the home sleep test routeNoYes, including when a lab study is needed instead
Email gate before the resultCommonNone
Answers sent to a serverOftenNever; scored in your browser, counts-only events

Why these eight factors

The eight factors come from the research behind that published model and from the sleep apnea literature more broadly. Loud snoring, witnessed pauses in breathing and daytime sleepiness are what obstructive sleep apnea looks like from the outside. High blood pressure travels with it because repeated oxygen dips stress the cardiovascular system all night. Body mass index, neck circumference, age and male sex are the fixed anatomical and demographic factors that narrow the upper airway or make it more likely to collapse during sleep.

In the 2008 derivation study, the four symptom factors alone predicted moderate to severe apnea with reasonable accuracy, and adding the four body factors improved sensitivity further. Later meta-analyses across surgical, sleep clinic and general populations found the full eight-factor model catches most people with moderate to severe apnea, at the cost of flagging many who do not have it. That trade-off is why a higher score is a reason to test, not a result in itself.

The home sleep test path

For adults whose symptoms and risk factors suggest moderate to severe obstructive sleep apnea, the American Academy of Sleep Medicine supports a home sleep apnea test with an adequate device as an alternative to an overnight laboratory study. The device records airflow, breathing effort and blood oxygen while you sleep in your own bed. A sleep clinician orders it, reads the result and makes the call; the kit itself is only a recorder.

The home test has limits. If it comes back negative or inconclusive in someone whose picture still suggests apnea, the guideline says the next step is a full laboratory polysomnography, not a shrug. Significant heart or lung disease, a neuromuscular condition, suspected central sleep apnea or a history of stroke also point to the laboratory study from the start, because the home device cannot tell those patterns apart. Either route ends with an apnea-hypopnea index, the number of breathing events per hour, which is what treatment decisions are based on.

What a count like this cannot see

A factor count is built around the classic picture: a heavier, older man who snores. Women, younger adults and people of normal weight with apnea often present differently, with insomnia, morning headaches, mood change or fatigue rather than loud snoring, and they score lower on any screen of this kind. A low score in that situation is not reassurance. It means the count has little to say and the symptoms themselves should carry the conversation.

The count also cannot distinguish obstructive apnea from central sleep apnea, upper airway resistance, or sleepiness caused by something else entirely, such as insufficient sleep, a medication, or an untreated thyroid or iron problem. Those are the things a clinician rules in or out before or alongside a sleep test.

Methodology and sources

The structure follows the eight-factor sleep apnea screen described by Chung and colleagues in 2008 and updated in 2016: eight binary risk factors, each worth one point, summed to a score from 0 to 8. The questionnaire itself is the property of University Health Network and is not reproduced here. The items on this page are original: they ask about concrete events in the past month and about measurements you can take yourself, in a different order and with different wording from the published instrument. The facts behind the factors (age over 50, male sex, a neck circumference of 40 cm or more, a body mass index above 35, treated or elevated blood pressure, loud snoring, witnessed pauses, daytime sleepiness) are published research findings and are used as such.

The bands on this page group the count as few (0 to 2), several (3 to 4) and most (5 to 8) of the eight factors. The cut points come from the published scoring of the named screen this page is modeled on (Chung 2008), so the result stays readable alongside the literature, but the band names and the interpretation of each range are our own. Those cut-offs were validated on the original instrument, not on these items, and the bands here are educational. In the published cohorts a score of 3 or more identified moderate to severe apnea with a sensitivity of roughly 90 percent, while a score of 5 or more raised the probability substantially; the meta-analysis by Nagappa and colleagues reports similar performance across surgical, sleep clinic and general population samples.

This is an educational risk count, not a sleep study. Only an overnight recording, whether a home sleep apnea test or a laboratory polysomnography ordered and interpreted by a clinician, can establish whether sleep apnea is present and how severe it is. The United States Preventive Services Task Force concluded in 2022 that the evidence is insufficient to recommend screening adults who have no symptoms; this page is for adults who have noticed something and want to know whether it is worth raising.

Medical review: Medical review pending. Last updated .

References

  1. Chung F, Yegneswaran B, Liao P, et al. STOP questionnaire: a tool to screen patients for obstructive sleep apnea. Anesthesiology. 2008;108(5):812-821. doi:10.1097/ALN.0b013e31816d83e4
  2. Chung F, Abdullah HR, Liao P. STOP-Bang Questionnaire: a practical approach to screen for obstructive sleep apnea. Chest. 2016;149(3):631-638. doi:10.1378/chest.15-0903
  3. Nagappa M, Liao P, Wong J, et al. Validation of the STOP-Bang Questionnaire as a screening tool for obstructive sleep apnea among different populations: a systematic review and meta-analysis. PLoS One. 2015;10(12):e0143697. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0143697
  4. Kapur VK, Auckley DH, Chowdhuri S, et al. Clinical practice guideline for diagnostic testing for adult obstructive sleep apnea: an American Academy of Sleep Medicine clinical practice guideline. J Clin Sleep Med. 2017;13(3):479-504. doi:10.5664/jcsm.6506
  5. US Preventive Services Task Force. Screening for obstructive sleep apnea in adults: US Preventive Services Task Force recommendation statement. JAMA. 2022;328(19):1945-1950. doi:10.1001/jama.2022.20304

Sleep Apnea Risk Calculator (Eight Risk Factors) FAQ

No. That questionnaire belongs to University Health Network and is not reproduced here. This page is modeled on its structure, eight one-point factors summed to a score, with original questions written in a different register. The bands are educational and sit at the published cut points for orientation.

In the published validation studies, a score of 3 or more on the original instrument caught around nine in ten people with moderate to severe apnea. On this page, a result of several or most of the factors is a reasonable prompt to raise sleep apnea with a clinician. A result of few factors with loud snoring, witnessed pauses or heavy daytime sleepiness is still worth raising, because the count underweights women and younger adults.

A small recorder you wear for one or more nights at home that measures airflow, breathing effort and blood oxygen. A sleep clinician orders it and interprets the result. Guidelines support it for uncomplicated adults whose picture suggests moderate to severe obstructive apnea, with a laboratory study if it is negative or inconclusive.

Use a soft tape around the neck at the level of the Adam's apple, snug but not tight, with your head level. The research threshold is 40 cm, which is about 15.75 inches. If you do not own a tape, mark a piece of string where the ends meet and lay it against a ruler.

Partly. Women with sleep apnea more often report insomnia, morning headaches, fatigue and low mood rather than loud snoring, so they tend to score lower on any factor count. If you have those symptoms, or a partner has noticed pauses or gasping, raise it with a clinician whatever the band says.

Yes. Your answers and the numbers you enter are scored in your browser and are never sent to us. They stay in this browser tab so you can return to your result, and closing the tab clears them. The only thing the page sends us is a counts-only event: which test was started or completed, the result band and the headline number, with no answers, no entered values and no account. There is nothing to sign up for.

Find clinics that test for and treat sleep apnea

Browse US clinics offering sleep apnea evaluation and treatment. Look for a board-certified sleep physician on the profile, home and laboratory testing both offered, and the full range of treatments explained, not only one device. A listing is not an endorsement.

Browse sleep apnea clinics

A listing is not a treatment endorsement. Read each clinic's published checks and talk to your clinician before starting any treatment.

Important: This calculator is an educational risk count, not a sleep study, not a diagnosis of sleep apnea or any condition, and not a treatment recommendation. Only an overnight sleep recording ordered and interpreted by a clinician can establish whether sleep apnea is present. If your symptoms are severe or sudden, seek urgent medical care.