Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-42gr6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-19T22:28:40.641Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

I CAN'T SLEEP, MY MIND IS RACING! AN INVESTIGATION OF STRATEGIES OF THOUGHT CONTROL IN INSOMNIA Allison G. Harvey

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 March 2001

Allison G. Harvey
Affiliation:
University of Oxford, U.K.

Abstract

People with sleep-onset insomnia commonly attribute their difficulty falling asleep to intrusive thoughts, worries, or “a racing mind”. Previous research has implicated strategies of thought control in the maintenance of symptoms in a number of psychological disorders. The purpose of the present study was to compare individuals diagnosed with insomnia (n = 30) and good sleepers (n = 29) for the strategies employed to manage cognitive activity during the pre-sleep period. Reappraisal, worry, and suppression were employed more by participants with insomnia than by good sleepers. Good sleepers employed social control, replacement, suppression, and reappraisal strategies most frequently, whereas the strategies most frequently employed by insomniacs were suppression and reappraisal. The results are discussed in terms of the role of strategies employed to manage pre-sleep cognitive activity in the maintenance and reversal of insomnia.

Type
Main Section
Copyright
© 2001 British Association for Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapies

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)
Submit a response

Comments

No Comments have been published for this article.