title: Remember to do: insomnia versus control groups in a prospective memory task.
abstract: Primary insomnia is characterized by difficulty in falling asleep and/or remaining asleep, by early morning awakening and/or nonrestorative sleep, and resultant daytime dysfunction in the absence of specific physical, mental, or substance-related causes. However, the studies on daytime cognitive functioning of insomnia patients report inconclusive results. This retrospective study aimed to compare the performance of insomnia patients (N = 54) to that of controls (N = 113) in a naturalistic prospective memory task. Task performance was defined by the percentage of times the event-marker button of an actigraph was pressed, at lights-off time and at wake-up time. The performance pattern in the prospective memory task was similar in both groups. In addition, the task was performed better at lights-off time than at wake-up time regardless of group. Post-hoc subgroup analysis showed that there were more insomnia patients who performed the task perfectly (i.e., 100%) than controls. Performance at wake-up time was significantly correlated to objective sleep quality (i.e., sleep efficiency) only in insomnia patients.
authors.affiliation: a Department of Psychology Second University of Naples.
authors.forename: Marco
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Fabbri
authors.forename: Lorenzo
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Tonetti
authors.forename: Monica
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Martoni
authors.forename: Vincenzo
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Natale
mesh_terms: D056044:Actigraphy; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D003071:Cognition / Q000502:physiology; D016208:Databases, Factual; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D061212:Memory, Episodic; D008875:Middle Aged; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012890:Sleep / Q000502:physiology; D007319:Sleep Initiation and Maintenance Disorders / Q000503:physiopathology*; D013997:Time Factors; D055815:Young Adult