Why score changes happen
Scores can shift due to sleep quality, stress cycles, acute life events, relationship changes, medication adjustments, or simple response bias.
Recommended retest windows
- Symptom screening: usually 2 to 4 weeks
- Behavioral style tools: 4 to 8 weeks unless major context shift
- High-stress events: wait until baseline stabilizes
Avoid these retest errors
- Testing every day and treating noise as trend
- Comparing across very different life contexts
- Ignoring major confounders (illness, grief, burnout)
Better trend interpretation
Track scores with context fields:
- Sleep quality
- Stress load
- Major event notes
- Workload intensity
Then interpret movement as pattern plus context, not raw number alone.
Decision rule
If scores worsen across two consecutive intervals and daily function declines, escalate to professional support.