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Project Title:SHARE Wave 9 – New items on financial decision making, successful ageing, eating habits, sleep, long-term care insurance, and long-term care expectations (English Version)
  1. General Information: *Note: This item was tested in German. This is an English translation of the original German wording.*
  2. Introduction: The next questions are related to your sleep
    [Die folgenden Fragen beziehen sich auf Ihren Schlaf.]
  3. Question Text: How much time did you spend yesterday on napping and resting during daytime?
    [Wie viel Zeit haben Sie gestern mit Schlafen oder Ausruhen während des Tages verbracht?]
  4. Instruction: Do not include sleeping at night time. [Nächtlichen Schlaf bitte nicht miteinbeziehen.]
  5. Answer Categories Hours: ____ [Stunden: ____]

    Minutes: ____ [Minuten: ____]


    1. Recommendations: Question: We recommend rephrasing the question. Firstly, it should be made clear that the focus of the question is on active recreation (sleeping or lying down).
      On the other hand, we recommend adjusting the reference period to ensure that the typical behavioral patterns of the respondents are recorded. A possible formulation of the question is:

      "On a typical day, how much time do you spend napping or lying down and doing nothing actively during daytime? Please do not include sleep at night.” [„Wie viel Zeit verbringen Sie an einem typischen Tag damit, einen Mittagsschlaf zu halten oder sich mittags hinzulegen und nichts aktiv zu tun? Bitte beziehen Sie nächtlichen Schlaf nicht mit ein.“]

      Response Options: No changes recommended.
  1. Cognitive Techniques:Information image/link to cognitive pretesting General Probing, Comprehension Probing, Specific Probing
  2. Findings for Question: 1. What do the respondents think about when answering the question? How do they arrive at their answers?

    Most of the respondents (n = 7) referred in their answers to sleeping or lying down during the day and stated that they either did so regularly (TP 03, 06, 08, 10) or rather rarely or never (TP 04, 07, 09):
    • "As a pensioner, I can afford to take an afternoon nap. This does not always result in sleeping, but sometimes in resting. But mostly I fall asleep anyway. An hour almost every day." (TP 08)
    • "When I come home at noon, I always lie down for an hour." (TP 10)
    • "Not at all. During the day, I only do it when I'm feeling bad. Then maybe I lie down for an hour between 2:00 and 3:00. But that doesn't happen very often. It's rare." (TP 04)
    • "Well, I didn't sleep during the day yesterday. Some people take naps regularly. But for me, it's only three or four times a month.” (TP 09)
    Of the remaining three test persons (TP 01, 02, 05), two stated that they had rested for 45 minutes (TP 01) and one hour (TP 02) on the previous day. However, it is not clear whether both test persons understood the term "resting" in the sense of the intention of the question. While - in our opinion - the question is about resting in the sense of "lying down and doing nothing", the two test persons interpreted resting as "taking a break from work and reading something, watching TV or playing around with the computer or mobile phone":
    • "I was thinking about how long I was lying on the couch reading the newspaper." (TP 01)
    • "Yesterday I took a break. […] Well, yesterday I took a break. I worked a little, read a little, watched a little. An hour yesterday. [...] I was tired and thought I had to take a break, [because] I knew I had to work late at night. And that's why I forced myself to stop and take a break for an hour, so to speak. That's why it stayed in my head, because I was forcing myself to take a break - or rest.“ (TP 02)

    2. How do they understand „napping and resting during daytime“?

    When asked what they mean by "sleeping during daytime", all test persons stated that they associated it with a nap. Two subjects additionally specified that this did not only mean "lying on the couch" or "dozing", but "falling asleep properly" (TP 06, 08), while two other subjects explicitly included "lying down" or " holding a power nap" (TP 01, 02). The test persons were also asked to explain what they mean by "resting during daytime". Only two subjects interpreted the term as "lying down and doing nothing" (TP 06, 08):
    • "To lie down for a while, but not to be really gone." (TP 06)
    • "Not to sleep, but to be physically inactive and not to watch TV or something." (TP 08)
    The rest of the test subjects understood it to mean drinking a coffee, reading, spending time on the mobile phone, watching television or listening to music:
    • "Resting is putting your feet on the table, having a cup of coffee and, for example, reading the newspaper or chatting on WhatsApp or something." (TP 01)
    • "Oh, that's sitting down and reading, for instance, that's resting." (TP 02)
    • "Just sit down, legs up, read a book, listen to music." (TP 05)
    • "If I grab a book and sit in the chair with my feet up. The moment I sit down, that's already resting." (TP 09)

    3. How representative was yesterday regarding the ordinary napping and resting behavior?

    Seven of the ten test persons stated that they regularly spent as much time sleeping and/or resting during the day (TP 01, 04, 05, 07, 08, 09, 10). The remaining three subjects stated that their answer to question 12 was exceptional.
  1. Question Topic: Society & social affairs/ Generation 50+ & retirement
  2. Construct: Napping/resting during daytime