Time estimation in chronic insomnia sufferers
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Updated: Aug 8, 2026

Noninvasive, High-throughput Determination of Sleep Duration in Rodents
Published on: April 18, 2018
Isabelle Rioux1, Sébastien Tremblay, Célyne H Bastien
1Ecole de psychologie, Université Laval, Québec, Canada.
Study Objective:
The objective of the present study is 2-fold: (1) compare the time-estimation performance of chronic insomnia sufferers to that of good sleepers and (2) evaluate the severity of the sleep complaint in order to assess its association with the time-estimation performance.
Design:
Between subjects design.
Participants:
The sample included 11 individuals suffering from chronic primary insomnia (7 women and 4 men, mean age = 44.64 years, SD = 12.71) and 11 good sleepers (5 women and 6 men, mean age = 48.00 years, SD = 7.86).
Interventions:
N/A.
Measurements And Results:
All participants completed a time-estimation task, namely a finger-tapping task. The results indicate no significant between-group differences on time-estimation data, as well as no significant relationship between severity of insomnia complaint and estimation of time.
Conclusion:
These results suggest that the tendency to misestimate sleep difficulties is not linked to impaired time estimation-specific processes in insomnia sufferers, as measured with the present task.
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