The presence of a perseverative iterative style in poor vs. good sleepers.
Catastrophizing is present in worriers and poor sleepers. This study investigates whether poor sleepers possess a 'perseverative iterative style' which predisposes them to catastrophize any topic, regardless of content or affective valence, a style previously found to occur more commonly in worriers as compared to others. Poor (n=23) and good sleepers (n=37) were distinguished using the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), from a sample of adults in the general population. Participants were required to catastrophize 2 topics: worries about sleep, and a current personal worry; and to iterate the positive aspects of a hypothetical topic. Poor sleepers catastrophized/iterated more steps to a greater extent than good sleepers to these three interviews, (F(1, 58)=7.35, p<.05). However, after controlling for anxiety and worry, this effect was reduced to non-significance for the 'sleep' and 'worry' topics, suggesting that anxiety may mediate some of the association between catastrophizing and sleep. However there was still a tendency for poor sleepers to iterate more steps to the 'hypothetical' topic, after controlling for anxiety and worry, which also suggests that poor sleepers possess a cognitive style which may predispose them to continue iterating consecutive steps to open-ended tasks regardless of anxiety and worry. Future research should examine whether the presence of this cognitive style is significant in leading to or maintaining insomnia.
Barclay
N L
NL
Department of Psychology, University of London, New Cross, UK. ps701nh@gold.ac.uk
Gregory
A M
AM
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001007:Anxiety / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000523:psychology*; D016009:Chi-Square Distribution; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010552:Personality Assessment; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D012016:Reference Values; D012649:Self Concept; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D012893:Sleep Wake Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000523:psychology*; D013223:Statistics as Topic; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D055815:Young Adult