Appraisals of insomnia identity in a clinical sample.

BACKGROUND: Insomnia identity, the conviction that one has insomnia, occurs independently of sleep quality or quantity, and is associated with numerous negative health outcomes. Little is known about factors influencing insomnia identity. This study planned to evaluate insomnia identity, perceived sleep experience, and sleep parameters. METHOD: Individuals seeking treatment for an insomnia complaint reported demographics, insomnia identity ratings, and daily sleep diaries. Insomnia complaint and insomnia identity were independently crossed with sleep diary data yielding: complaining good (n = 10) and poor sleepers (n = 51), and good (n = 7) and poor sleepers (n = 40) with insomnia identity. Participants were additionally classified as with (n = 50) and without (n = 14) insomnia identity. Group differences and predictors of insomnia identity were assessed. RESULTS: Complaining poor sleepers and poor sleepers with insomnia identity reported significantly poorer sleep ratings compared to their counterparts. Insomnia identity severity was predicted by worse sleep quality comparisons and increased helplessness. Analyses revealed poorer sleep parameters among those with an insomnia identity versus without. DISCUSSION: Group differences may reflect variation in perceived sleep assessment and insomnia identity rating. Results further indicated that not all who complain of insomnia (and seek treatment) endorse insomnia identity. Implications of results and future study directions on insomnia identity are discussed.

Worry and Rumination Have Distinct Associations with Nighttime versus Daytime Sleep Symptomology.

Objective: To assess whether worry and rumination differ in predicting nighttime sleep disturbance versus daytime sleep-related impairment, as assessed using short forms from the Patient Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System (PROMIS). Participants: Adults recruited from the United States population (N = 459) via an online crowdsourcing service. Methods: Factor analysis explored whether items comprising validated measures of worry and rumination loaded onto separate factors. Hierarchical multiple regression models entered worry and rumination in a stepwise fashion to assess their relative strength in predicting PROMIS sleep disturbance and sleep-related impairment, after controlling for 17 covariates. All analyses were run twice using sleep-specific and general measures of worry and rumination. Results: Worry and rumination items loaded onto separate factors. In the regression analysis of sleep-specific cognition, only worry entered the model predicting sleep disturbance, whereas rumination entered after worry in the model predicting sleep-related impairment. In the analysis of general cognition, both cognitive process variables significantly predicted the PROMIS outcomes. Worry was the stronger predictor of sleep disturbance, whereas rumination was the stronger predictor of sleep-related impairment. Conclusions: Worry and rumination were observed to be distinct constructs that separately contributed to predicting daytime sleep-related impairment. Future studies should more closely examine how cognitive processes relate to insomnia symptomology during the day.

Behavioral and psychological treatments for chronic insomnia disorder in adults: an American Academy of Sleep Medicine systematic review, meta-analysis, and GRADE assessment.

INTRODUCTION: The purpose of this systematic review is to provide supporting evidence for a clinical practice guideline on the use of behavioral and psychological treatments for chronic insomnia disorder in adult populations. METHODS: The American Academy of Sleep Medicine commissioned a task force of 9 experts in sleep medicine and sleep psychology. A systematic review was conducted to identify randomized controlled trials that addressed behavioral and psychological interventions for the treatment of chronic insomnia disorder in adults. Statistical analyses were performed to determine if the treatments produced clinically significant improvements in a range of critical and important outcomes. Finally, the Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development, and Evaluation process was used to evaluate the evidence for making specific treatment recommendations. RESULTS: The literature search identified 1,244 studies; 124 studies met the inclusion criteria, and 89 studies provided data suitable for statistical analyses. Evidence for the following interventions is presented in this review: cognitive-behavioral therapy for insomnia, brief therapies for insomnia, stimulus control, sleep restriction therapy, relaxation training, sleep hygiene, biofeedback, paradoxical intention, intensive sleep retraining, and mindfulness. This review provides a detailed summary of the evidence along with the quality of evidence, the balance of benefits vs harms, patient values and preferences, and resource use considerations.

Behavioral and psychological treatments for chronic insomnia disorder in adults: an American Academy of Sleep Medicine clinical practice guideline.

INTRODUCTION: This guideline establishes clinical practice recommendations for the use of behavioral and psychological treatments for chronic insomnia disorder in adults. METHODS: The American Academy of Sleep Medicine (AASM) commissioned a task force of experts in sleep medicine and sleep psychology to develop recommendations and assign strengths based on a systematic review of the literature and an assessment of the evidence using Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation (GRADE) methodology. The task force evaluated a summary of the relevant literature and the quality of evidence, the balance of clinically relevant benefits and harms, patient values and preferences, and resource use considerations that underpin the recommendations. The AASM Board of Directors approved the final recommendations. RECOMMENDATIONS: The following recommendations are intended as a guide for clinicians in choosing a specific behavioral and psychological therapy for the treatment of chronic insomnia disorder in adult patients. Each recommendation statement is assigned a strength ("strong" or "conditional"). A "strong" recommendation (ie, "We recommend…") is one that clinicians should follow under most circumstances. A "conditional" recommendation is one that requires that the clinician use clinical knowledge and experience, and to strongly consider the patient's values and preferences to determine the best course of action. 1. We recommend that clinicians use multicomponent cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia for the treatment of chronic insomnia disorder in adults. (STRONG). 2. We suggest that clinicians use multicomponent brief therapies for insomnia for the treatment of chronic insomnia disorder in adults. (CONDITIONAL). 3. We suggest that clinicians use stimulus control as a single-component therapy for the treatment of chronic insomnia disorder in adults. (CONDITIONAL). 4. We suggest that clinicians use sleep restriction therapy as a single-component therapy for the treatment of chronic insomnia disorder in adults. (CONDITIONAL). 5. We suggest that clinicians use relaxation therapy as a single-component therapy for the treatment of chronic insomnia disorder in adults. (CONDITIONAL). 6. We suggest that clinicians not use sleep hygiene as a single-component therapy for the treatment of chronic insomnia disorder in adults. (CONDITIONAL).

Repeated measures regression mixture models.

Regression mixture models are one increasingly utilized approach for developing theories about and exploring the heterogeneity of effects. In this study we aimed to extend the current use of regression mixtures to a repeated regression mixture method when repeated measures, such as diary-type and experience-sampling method, data are available. We hypothesized that additional information borrowed from the repeated measures would improve the model performance, in terms of class enumeration and accuracy of the parameter estimates. We specifically compared three types of model specifications in regression mixtures: (a) traditional single-outcome model; (b) repeated measures models with three, five, and seven measures; and (c) a single-outcome model with the average of seven repeated measures. The results showed that the repeated measures regression mixture models substantially outperformed the traditional and average single-outcome models in class enumeration, with less bias in the parameter estimates. For sample size, whereas prior recommendations have suggested that regression mixtures require samples of well over 1,000 participants, even for classes at a large distance from each other (classes with regression weights of .20 vs. .70), the present repeated measures regression mixture models allow for samples as low as 200 participants with an increased number (i.e., seven) of repeated measures. We also demonstrate an application of the proposed repeated measures approach using data from the Sleep Research Project. Implications and limitations of the study are discussed.

Health and demographic discriminators of an insomnia identity and self-reported poor quantitative sleep.

OBJECTIVES: To identify factors that most saliently characterize the profile of individuals who complain of chronic insomnia, with or without quantitative sleep impairment. DESIGN: Community-dwelling adults reported on their demographics and functioning via questionnaires and completed 2 weeks of sleep diaries. SETTING: Shelby County in the Memphis, TN, area. PARTICIPANTS: Population-based sample, stratified by sex and age to maximally represent sleep and health across the life span. MEASUREMENTS: Participants were classified into 4 groups according to whether or not they endorsed a chronic insomnia complaint and whether they demonstrated good or poor quantitative sleep on diaries. Discriminant analysis determined which of the following variables significantly maximized spread among the sleep groups: age, sex, race, body mass index, household education, number of medications, frequency of substance use, number of medical conditions, depression, anxiety, fatigue, daytime sleepiness, and daytime insomnia impact. RESULTS: On the most powerful discriminant function, participants with more medical conditions, greater depression and anxiety, and older age were more likely to complain of chronic insomnia than to not complain and, within these levels, to have poor rather than good quantitative sleep. A second function found African Americans particularly likely to be noncomplaining poor sleepers compared to Whites. CONCLUSIONS: Findings make progress in clarifying the profile of individuals who self-identify as having chronically poor sleep. Notably, general depression and anxiety surpassed sleep-related daytime impairment measures in discriminating complaining sleepers. Negativistic self-appraisals driving diffuse psychological symptoms may thus be viable intervention targets for reducing persistent insomnia complaints independently of sleep-specific concerns.

Intraindividual variability in sleep and comorbid medical and mental health conditions.

STUDY OBJECTIVES: Intraindividual variability (IIV) in sleep may be a risk factor for disease above the influence of mean sleep. Associations between IIV in sleep and risk for a comprehensive set of common medical and mental health conditions have not been assessed in a representative sample. METHODS: This study examined mean and IIV in total sleep time (TST), sleep quality (SQ), sleep efficiency (SE), and circadian midpoint (CM) in 771 adults recruited for an epidemiological study. Participants completed 14 days of sleep diaries to assess TST, SQ, SE, and CM, after which they reported on medical conditions and mental health symptoms. Data were analyzed using logistic regression, and models controlled for gender, body mass index, age, and race. RESULTS: Lower mean TST, SQ, and SE were related to increased odds of having gastrointestinal problems, depression, and anxiety. IIV in TST was related to increased odds of having neurological, breathing, and gastrointestinal problems, as well as pain and depression; all results held controlling for mean sleep and adjusting for false discovery rate. IIV in SQ and SE was not associated with odds of having any medical or mental health conditions after adjusting for false discovery rate, nor was IIV in CM or mean CM. CONCLUSIONS: Confirming previous research, mean TST, SQ, and SE are related to risk for gastrointestinal problems, depression, and anxiety. IIV in TST may be a unique facet of disturbed sleep that is associated with increased risk for a diverse cluster of medical and mental health conditions.

Obsessive-compulsive personality disorder features and response to behavioral therapy for insomnia among patients with hypnotic-dependent insomnia.

Objective: To compare therapeutic response to behavioral therapy for insomnia (BT-I) among hypnotic-dependent insomnia (HDI) patients with and without Cluster C personality disorders. Participants: Twenty-three adults with HDI (17 females), aged between 33 and 68 (M = 53; SD = 9.9) were included in the study. Methods: Participants completed a personality disorder assessment (baseline), as well as sleep diaries, polysomnography (PSG), and an insomnia severity assessment (baseline, posttreatment, and one-year follow-up). Treatment consisted of eight weeks of individual BT-I and gradual hypnotic medication withdrawal. Multilevel mixed-effects linear regression models examined the interaction between study visit and Cluster C personality disorders status on treatment response to BT-I. Results: Obsessive-compulsive personality disorder (OCPD) was the most prevalent of the Cluster C personality disorders with 38% (n = 8) of participants meeting criteria. There were no significant treatment differences by OCPD status across time as measured by sleep diaries and insomnia severity status. However, there were significant treatment differences by OCPD status by one-year follow-up on PSG outcomes, indicating that patients with OCPD status had shorter and more disrupted sleep than patients without OCPD status. Conclusions: Based on self-reported sleep measures, patients with insomnia and features of OCPD responded equivalently to BT-I at one-year follow-up compared to patients without features of OCPD. However, polysomnography outcomes indicated objective sleep deteriorated in these patients, which may suggest greater vulnerability to relapse.

Intraindividual sleep variability and its association with insomnia identity and poor sleep.

OBJECTIVE: Insomnia identity refers to the conviction that one has insomnia, which can occur independently of poor sleep. Night-to-night variability in sleep (termed intraindividual variability [IIV]) may contribute to insomnia identity yet remain undetected via conventional mean analyses. This study compared sleep IIV across four subgroups: noncomplaining good sleepers (NG), complaining poor sleepers (CP), complaining good sleepers (CG), and noncomplaining poor sleepers (NP). METHODS: This study analyzed 14 days of sleep diary data from 723 adults. Participants were classified according to presence/absence of a sleep complaint and presence/absence of poor sleep. A 2 × 2 multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA) was performed to explore differences on five measures of sleep IIV: intraindividual standard deviation in total sleep time (iSD TST), sleep onset latency (iSD SOL), wake after sleep onset (iSD WASO), number of nightly awakenings (iSD NWAK), and sleep efficiency (iSD SE). RESULTS: MANCOVA revealed significant main effects of poor sleep, sleep complaint, and their interaction on sleep IIV. Poor sleepers exhibited greater IIV across all sleep parameters compared to good sleepers. Similarly, individuals with a sleep complaint exhibited greater IIV compared to individuals with no complaint. The interaction revealed that iSD SOL was significantly greater among CP than NP, and iSD NWAK was significantly greater among CG than NG. CONCLUSIONS: Greater night-to-night variability in specific sleep parameters was present among complaining versus noncomplaining sleepers in good and poor sleep subgroups. These findings suggest certain aspects of sleep consistency may be salient for treatment-seeking individuals based on their quantitative sleep status.

Effects of Integrated Telehealth-Delivered Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy for Depression and Insomnia in Rural Older Adults.

BACKGROUND: We examined the effects of integrated cognitive-behavioral therapy for depression and insomnia (CBT-D + CBT-I) delivered via videoconferening in rural, middle aged and older adults with depressive and insomnia symptoms. METHOD: Forty patients with depressive and insomnia symptoms were randomized to receive either 10 sessions of CBT-D + CBT-I or usual care (UC). Patients in the integrated CBT condition were engaged in telehealth treatment through Skype at their primary care clinic. Assessments were conducted at baseline, post-treatment, and 3-month follow-up. RESULTS: CBT-D +CBT-I participants had significantly greater improvements in sleep at post-treatment and 3-month follow-up as compared to the UC participants. The time by group interaction for depression was not significant; both the CBT-D + CBT-I and UC conditions had a decrease in depressive symptoms over time. CONCLUSION: While integrated CBT benefits both depression and insomnia symptoms, its effects on depression are more equivocal. Further research should consider expanding the depression treatment component of integrated CBT to enhance effectiveness.

Multilevel modeling of chronotype and weekdays versus weekends to predict nonrestorative sleep.

Nonrestorative sleep, a form of subjective sleep disturbance that has been largely neglected in the literature, is newly accessible to researchers via the validated restorative sleep questionnaire (RSQ). The daily version of the RSQ allows for analysis of within-subjects variation in restorative sleep across repeated samplings, and such day-to-day regularity in sleep variables has been highlighted as an important new direction for research. The present study used a sophisticated statistical approach, multilevel modeling, to examine the contributions of circadian chronotype, calendar day of questionnaire completion (weekends versus weekdays), and their interaction in explaining both interindividual and intraindividual variance in restorative sleep. Analyses were conducted using an archival dataset of college undergraduates who continuously completed daily RSQs over a 14-day sampling period. In the final multilevel model, possessing an evening type predicted lower restorative sleep between subjects, while sampling on weekdays predicted lower restorative sleep within subjects. Furthermore, a cross-level interaction was observed, such that the difference in restorative sleep on weekends versus weekdays was more pronounced among those with greater evening circadian preference. All of the effects were maintained after accounting for the significant influence of gender (women had less restorative sleep than men). These results are theoretically consistent with findings that evening types display stronger disparities in sleep schedules across free and workdays (i.e., social jet lag), and attest to the usefulness of multilevel models for statistically investigating how stable traits interact with factors that vary day to day (e.g., work or school schedules) in influencing sleep outcomes.

Insomnia identity.

Insomnia identity refers to the conviction that one has insomnia, and this sleep complaint can be measured independently of sleep. Conventional wisdom predicts that sleep complaints are synchronous with poor sleep, but crossing the presence or absence of poor sleep with the presence or absence of insomnia identity reveals incongruity with expected patterns. This review of existing research on insomnia identity processes and influence finds that about one-fourth of the population are uncoupled sleepers, meaning there is an uncoupling of sleep and sleep appraisal, and daytime impairment accrues more strongly to those who endorse an insomnia identity. Research supports the conclusion that there is a cost to pathologizing sleep. Individuals claiming an insomnia identity, regardless of sleep status, are at greater risk for a range of sequelae including self-stigma, depression, suicidal ideation, anxiety, hypertension, and fatigue. A broad research agenda is proposed with hypotheses about the sources, clinical mechanisms, and clinical management of insomnia identity.

The National Sleep Foundation's Sleep Health Index.

OBJECTIVES: A validated survey instrument to assess general sleep health would be a useful research tool, particularly when objective measures of sleep are not feasible. Thus, the National Sleep Foundation spearheaded the development of the Sleep Health Index (SHI). DESIGN: The development of the SHI began with a task force of experts who identified key sleep domains and questions. An initial draft of the survey was created and questions were refined using cognitive testing and pretesting. The resulting 28-question survey was administered via random-sample telephone interviews to nationally representative samples of adults in 2014 (n=1253) and 2015 (n=1250). These data were combined to create the index. A factor analysis linked 14 questions to 3 discrete domains: sleep quality, sleep duration, and disordered sleep. These were assembled as sub-indices, then combined to form the overall SHI, with scores ranging from 0 to 100 (higher score reflects better sleep health). RESULTS: Americans earned an overall SHI score of 76/100, with sub-index scores of 81/100 in disordered sleep, 79/100 in sleep duration, and 68/100 in sleep quality. In regression analyses, the strongest independent predictors of sleep health were self-reported stress (ß=-0.26) and overall health (ß=0.26), which were also the strongest predictors of sleep quality (ß=-0.32 and ß=0.27 respectively). CONCLUSIONS: The current 12-item SHI is a valid, reliable research tool that robustly measures 3 separate but related elements of sleep health-duration, quality, and disorders-and assesses the sleep health status of adults in the United States.

The role of perceived sleep norms in subjective sleep appraisals and sleep-related illness behavior.

The present investigation sought to extend extant research on subjective sleep complaints by examining their relation to perceived sleep norms. Results from two studies showed that individuals' distress and illness behavior in response to symptoms of fatigue and non-restorative sleep was influenced by their perceptions of peer norms for those symptoms. Individuals who believed they experienced a greater degree of fatigue and non-restorative sleep than their peers reported more distress arising from those symptoms, and were also more likely to seek social support and medical treatment for them. Furthermore, participants who scored higher in neuroticism were more likely to believe they experienced worse fatigue and non-restorative sleep than their peers, and thus reported higher symptom-related distress, and higher likelihood of engaging in illness behaviors. These results provide preliminary evidence of the clinical relevance of perceived norms in the way individuals respond to and manage sleep related problems.

National Sleep Foundation's sleep quality recommendations: first report.

OBJECTIVES: To provide evidence-based recommendations and guidance to the public regarding indicators of good sleep quality across the life-span. METHODS: The National Sleep Foundation assembled a panel of experts from the sleep community and representatives appointed by stakeholder organizations (Sleep Quality Consensus Panel). A systematic literature review identified 277 studies meeting inclusion criteria. Abstracts and full-text articles were provided to the panelists for review and discussion. A modified Delphi RAND/UCLA Appropriateness Method with 3 rounds of voting was used to determine agreement. RESULTS: For most of the sleep continuity variables (sleep latency, number of awakenings >5minutes, wake after sleep onset, and sleep efficiency), the panel members agreed that these measures were appropriate indicators of good sleep quality across the life-span. However, overall, there was less or no consensus regarding sleep architecture or nap-related variables as elements of good sleep quality. CONCLUSIONS: There is consensus among experts regarding some indicators of sleep quality among otherwise healthy individuals. Education and public health initiatives regarding good sleep quality will require sustained and collaborative efforts from multiple stakeholders. Future research should explore how sleep architecture and naps relate to sleep quality. Implications and limitations of the consensus recommendations are discussed.

William R. Shadish (1949-2016).

Presents an obituary for William R. Shadish who passed away on March 27, 2016, after a long, arduous battle with prostate cancer. Shadish was a distinguished professor for the University of California, Merced. He was elected president of three organizations: American Evaluation Association (1996), Society for Research Synthesis Methodology (2013), and Society for Multivariate Experimental Psychology (2014), and received numerous national awards. (PsycINFO Database Record

Correlation of Disturbed Sleep and Cancer Stress.

To illuminate the course of insomnia in the presence of an acute comorbidity, we examined the association between insomnia severity and breast cancer symptom severity over time and determined if this association varies with insomnia history and presleep arousal. Twenty-nine newly diagnosed breast cancer patients, who also exhibited insomnia, completed sleep diary and cancer symptom severity questionnaires every other week (total of 28 days) over 7 weeks, as well as baseline and postobservation measures. Participants were defined as having insomnia prior to cancer (IPC) or insomnia secondary to cancer (ISC) based on precancer sleep status. Insomnia and cancer symptom severity were strongly correlated at baseline but significantly declined over the evaluation period. Among ISC individuals, there was an association between sleep severity and cancer severity at baseline but not 7 weeks later. IPC individuals showed a consistent pattern of no significant association between sleep severity and cancer symptom severity. IPC had higher levels of cognitive presleep arousal than ISC. The current study documented the evolution of the relation between insomnia and breast cancer symptom severity over time and identified factors (premorbid insomnia and presleep hyperarousal) that may influence this association.

Association between chronotype and nonrestorative sleep in a college population.

Nonrestorative sleep (NRS), characterized by a lack of refreshment upon awakening, has received little attention in the sleep literature even though it can occur and cause impairment apart from other sleep difficulties associated with insomnia. The Restorative Sleep Questionnaire (RSQ) is one of the first validated self-report instruments for investigating NRS severity, presenting new opportunities to explore what factors predict and perhaps contribute to unrefreshing sleep. The present study sought to determine whether inherent circadian preference for morning or evening activity, known as chronotype, predicted restorative sleep in 164 college undergraduates who completed daily RSQs over 2 weeks. The participants who endorsed greater orientation to evening activity on the morningness-eveningness questionnaire reported significantly less average restorative sleep across their full sampling period, and this association was maintained after accounting for demographic factors, number of sleep-relevant psychiatric and medical diagnoses, sleep diary parameters, self-reported status as an insomniac and ratings of sleep quality. When analyses were conducted separately for weekday and weekend RSQ scores, eveningness predicted NRS independently of extraneous variables only during the workweek, not during Saturday and Sunday. These findings have implications for the developing conceptualization of NRS, and continue the work of elucidating the interconnections between common sleep disturbances and the circadian system.

Cognitive processes in comorbid poor sleep and chronic pain.

We examined the unique and shared contributions of pain catastrophizing, cognitive pre-sleep arousal, and somatic pre-sleep arousal, to the prediction of insomnia severity in chronic pain. Forty-eight adults with chronic pain completed self-report measures of these study variables, health, and mood. Hierarchical regression showed that pain catastrophizing accounted for unique variance in insomnia severity, independent of pain intensity, depression, restless legs symptoms, and demographics. However, when cognitive and somatic pre-sleep arousal were also taken into account, the significance of cognitive pre-sleep arousal rendered pain catastrophizing non-significant. We identify research and clinical implications of this study.