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Eye Tracking, Cortisol, and a Sleep vs. Wake Consolidation Delay: Combining Methods to Uncover an Interactive Effect of Sleep and Cortisol on Memory
Published on: June 18, 2014
Sleep hygiene and sleep control mediate the relationship between cognitive fusion and insomnia severity
Amanda L Richdale1, Francesco R De Maria2, Eric M J Morris2
1Olga Tennison Autism Research Centre, School of Psychology and Public Health, La Trobe University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
Objectives:
Insomnia is associated with mental ill health, worry and rumination-the two latter contribute to pre-sleep cognitive arousal. These variables also associate with psychological inflexibility, including cognitive fusion (CF), a literal attachment to unhelpful thoughts, patterns and rules. Good sleepers generally have low CF, good sleep hygiene and a belief in sleep control, but individuals high in CF may have unhelpful beliefs about sleep hygiene and sleep control.
Methods:
We investigated associations between CF, sleep hygiene and sleep control, hypothesizing that each would contribute significant variance to insomnia and mediate the relationship between CF and insomnia.
Results:
Participants were 411 adults (Mage = 45.9 years, SD = 15.6) completing an online survey including demographics, and questionnaires about insomnia (ISI), CF (CFQ), sleep hygiene (SHS) and sleep control (BRISC). Hierarchical regression accounted for 34% of variance in insomnia (p < .001), showing that after controlling for demographic variables, CF, sleep hygiene and sleep control each accounted for significant variance in insomnia, with sleep control the strongest predictor (β = -.304). Parallel mediation modelling accounting for 22.2% of variance in insomnia (p < .001) showed both sleep hygiene and sleep control partially mediated the CF and insomnia relationship.
Conclusions:
Our study shows for the first time that CF, sleep hygiene and sleep control beliefs are inter-related in their impact on insomnia. As CF is a core component of psychological inflexibility, ACT plus behaviour therapy (ACT-I) may be a more suitable insomnia intervention than CBT plus behaviour therapy (CBT-I) for some people.
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