Internal Restlessness Scale (IRS) Assessment

Internal restlessness is the feeling of being unable to settle even when you are sitting perfectly still. It is a private experience: the mind races, thoughts pile up faster than they can be finished, and there is a persistent pull towards doing something else. From the outside, nothing may be visible at all.

That gap matters. Hyperactivity in children is usually something other people notice first, because it shows up as movement. Many adults describe the opposite: they learned to sit still years ago, but the restlessness never went anywhere, it simply moved inward. Colleagues see someone calm while the person themselves feels like they are running.

Because it is invisible, internal restlessness often goes unmentioned. It is also not unique to any one condition. It shows up in ADHD, and it shows up in anxiety, in mood disorders, in sleep deprivation, and in ordinary stress. Putting a number on it does not tell you which of those you are looking at, but it can make something vague concrete enough to describe.

This questionnaire asks you to rate 24 statements about your own experience, each on a scale from 1 (not at all true) to 7 (very true). It takes about three minutes. Your answers are scored in your browser and never leave the page.

3 of the statements are worded the other way round, so that agreeing with them means less restlessness rather than more. Those are reverse-scored before the total is worked out, which is why answering everything with a 7 does not simply give you the highest possible result. Mixing the direction of items this way is standard practice: it stops people falling into a rhythm of picking the same number for everything without reading.

The full list of statements:

1. My thoughts race through my mind.
2. I find it hard to mentally relax.
3. My mind feels constantly 'busy'.
4. I have difficulty stopping my thoughts when I want to sleep.
5. I feel an inner urge to keep myself occupied.
6. I feel restless even when sitting quietly.
7. My attention easily drifts away during conversations.
8. I find it difficult to concentrate on what someone is saying.
9. I often lose track of my thoughts mid-task.
10. I feel mentally disorganized.
11. I jump quickly from one thought to another.
12. I struggle to keep my attention steady on one thing.
13. I often think about unrelated things when I'm supposed to be focused.
14. I tend to act on ideas before fully thinking them through.
15. I get mentally impatient if things move too slowly.
16. I feel a strong need to be mentally stimulated all the time.
17. I notice my thoughts interfere with getting things done.
18. I have difficulty putting worries or ideas aside.
19. My thoughts often make me feel unsettled.
20. I feel mentally impulsive.
21. My mind feels 'scattered' or hard to organize.
22. I am organized. (reverse-scored)
23. I feel mentally calm. (reverse-scored)
24. I can focus well on tasks. (reverse-scored)

Every statement is answered, so totals always land between 24 and 168. A higher number means you reported more inner restlessness. The page sorts your total into one of 5 ranges:

• 24-39Very low— Unusually calm
• 40-69Low to moderate— Typical range for neurotypical adults
• 70-89Moderate— Borderline, may indicate subclinical symptoms
• 90-109High— Typical range for adults with ADHD
• 110-168Very high— Often seen alongside significant ADHD symptoms

These ranges are this site’s own. They were not taken from published research and they are not clinical cut-offs. Treat the band as a rough description of what you reported, not as a threshold you have crossed. A score of 89 and a score of 91 are the same score in every way that matters; they only look different because a line had to be drawn somewhere.

The number also describes today. Restlessness moves with sleep, stress, caffeine and workload, so a single result is a snapshot rather than a trait.

There is a real instrument behind this idea. The Internal Restlessness Scale was developed by Dr. Lisa Weyandt and colleagues, and first published in Internal Restlessness Scale: Performance of College Students With and Without ADHD (2003). It was built to capture the inward form of hyperactivity that adult self-reports kept describing but observer-rated checklists kept missing, and it was validated against student samples with and without ADHD.

The 24 statements on this page are not that instrument. They were written for this site to explore the same idea, and the scoring ranges above were not taken from that research. This page is an independent educational tool inspired by published work, not a copy of it and not a substitute for it. If you need the validated scale, it should come through a clinician or the published literature.

Does this test diagnose ADHD?

No. Nothing on this page is a diagnosis, and a questionnaire cannot give you one. ADHD is diagnosed by a qualified clinician who takes a developmental history, rules out other explanations, and looks at how symptoms affect your life across different settings. What this page gives you is a number describing how much inner restlessness you reported today, and some language for describing that experience to someone who can actually assess it.

How long does it take?

About three minutes. There are 24 statements, and you rate each one from 1 to 7 using a slider. You can go back and change any answer before the end.

Is my data stored or sent anywhere?

No. Every answer stays in your browser tab and the score is worked out there. Nothing is uploaded, none of your answers are saved, and there is no account, no database and no analytics on them. The only thing the page remembers is that you dismissed the disclaimer, and even that lasts only until you close the tab. Closing the tab discards everything.

What does my score mean?

Scores fall between 24 and 168, because there are 24 statements each rated 1 to 7. Higher means more reported inner restlessness. The page sorts your total into one of five ranges, from very low to very high. Those ranges are this site’s own rough guide, not clinical cut-offs, so treat the band as a description rather than a verdict.

I scored high. What should I do?

A high score means you reported a lot of inner restlessness. It does not mean you have ADHD, or anything else. If the restlessness is getting in the way of your work, sleep or relationships, that is worth raising with a doctor or a mental health professional. Bringing specific examples is more useful than bringing a number from a website.

Are these the real Internal Restlessness Scale questions?

No. The published Internal Restlessness Scale by Dr. Lisa Weyandt and colleagues is a separate, validated instrument, and these 24 statements are not its wording. They were written for this site to explore the same idea. The scoring ranges here were not taken from that research either. If you need the validated scale, seek it out through a clinician or the published literature.

This page cannot diagnose anything. It does not know your history, it cannot see how you function at work or at home, and it cannot rule out the many other reasons a person might feel restless. A questionnaire answered alone on a website is not an assessment, whoever wrote the questions.

It is also not a screen for anxiety, bipolar disorder, autism, thyroid problems or sleep disorders, all of which can produce a similar feeling. A high score here says only that you reported a lot of inner restlessness.

Consider talking to a doctor or a mental health professional if restlessness is interfering with your sleep, your work, or your relationships; if it has been present for months rather than weeks; or if it comes with low mood, persistent anxiety, or difficulty functioning day to day. Take specific examples with you rather than a score from a website — what you could not finish, what you keep losing track of, what a bad week actually looks like. That is the part a clinician can work with.