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and easily accessible, is the widespread psychotropic substance. Tolerance to alcohol can take place in many behavioral tests. However, the structure of the sleep-wakefulness cycle (SWC) is not taken into account, despite the fact that the structure of the SWC is sensitive to a variety of actions (pharmacological and non-pharmacological) and, can be considered as valid model to study them, including ethanol administration. Therefore the question whether tolerance to ethanol might be reflected in changes of the structure of SWC is relevant in the sense that these alterations might be primary risk-indicators at alcohol consumption. Reasoning from the above mentioned, the purpose of the present work was to study the effects of tolerance to ethanol on the SWC structure. Materials and methods: Experiments were carried out on the adult cats (n = 5). The following methods were used: the stereotaxic; polysomnographic. Alcoholization (0.2-2.5 g/kg 25% ethanol solution) was conducted by i/p injections, that lasted for two weeks. The obtained results were processed statistically and significance of the changes was determined by the Student t-test. Results: Low single doses of ethanol (0.2-0.5 g/kg) did not induce any significant changes in the structure of the SWC. While using doses of 0.6 g/kg it was noted only increasing of the latent period of the onset of sleep. However, the structure of the SWC recovered within 1-2 h after injection. Increasing the dose to 1 g/kg caused severe intoxication, which reflected in a behavioral (anxiety, tremor, vocalizations) and autonomic (vomiting and frequent urination) disorders. Against the background of restless behavioral wakefulness recurrent synchronization, that is the EEG correlate of light slowwave sleep, developed. The total volume of deep slow-wave sleep was significantly decreased and the latent period of the onset of paradoxical sleep was increased. The structure of sleep was fragmented, coursed by frequent awakenings. For the fifth-eighth day of alcoholization the structure of the SWC restored, behavioral and vegetative signs of intoxication moved out. Conclusion: The obtained results signify that development of tolerance to ethanol can be reflected in the alteration of the structure of SWC.

Based on successive samples totaling more than 5000 higher education students, we scrutinized the reliability, structure, initial validity, and normative scores of a brief selfreport 7-item scale to screen for the continuum of nighttime insomnia complaints / perceived sleep quality, used by our team for more than a decade, henceforth labeled the Basic Scale on Insomnia complaints and Quality of Sleep (BaSIQS). In study/sample 1 (n = 1654), the items were developed based on part of a larger survey on higher education sleepwake patterns. The test-retest study was conducted in an independent small group (n = 33) with a 2-8 week gap. In study/sample 2 (n = 360), focused mainly on validity, the BaSIQS was completed together with the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI). In study 3, a large recent sample of students from universities all over the country (n = 2995) answered the BaSIQS items, based on which normative scores were determined, and an additional question on perceived sleep problems in order to further analyze the scale's validity.Regarding reliability, Cronbach alpha coefficients were systematically higher than 0.7, and the test-retest correlation coefficient was greater than 0.8. Structure analyses revealed consistently satisfactory two-factor and single-factor solutions. Concerning validity analyses, BaSIQS scores were significantly correlated to PSQI component scores and overall score (r = 652 corresponding to a large association); mean scores were significantly higher in those students classifying themselves as having sleep problems (p < .0001, d = 0.99 corresponding to a large effect size). In conclusion, the BaSIQS is very easy to administer, and appears to be a reliable and valid scale in higher education students. It might be a convenient short tool in research and applied settings to rapidly assess sleep quality or screen for insomnia complaints, and it may be easily used in other populations with minor adaptations.

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