Insomnia

Analytical Essay # 102696

Psychology > Disorders
Research Designs

Insomnia

A paper that discusses insomnia - a disorder that affects people's sleep patterns.

912 words () | 4 sources | APA | 2008 United States

Paper Summary:

This paper describes the cognitive disorder - insomnia, used to describe individuals who have poor sleep patterns, or are unable to sleep for long periods. The paper details two studies carried out on senior level undergraduates aged between 20-22, explaining the design of the study and correlation of the results.

Outline:
Introduction
Experimental Design
Non-experimental/Correlational Design
Conclusion

From the Paper:

"Participants in the study were all senior level undergraduates age range 20-22 obtaining 12 credits or higher in their 1st semester. The participants were males and females living in same sex dormitories. Questionnaires were distributed during the 2nd semester junior year in order to select the most stressful students in their senior year. Selections were made and 50 males and 80 females selected that also had employment. The questionnaire explain the criteria of insomnia as such, for example, "How many hours of sleep do you think you get every night," "How many credit hours have you registered for in your senior 1st semester," "What is your gender," "Do you indulge in any recreational drugs," "Do you suffer from any mental ailments, i.e., depression, anxiety attacks, anti-social effects, etc.,'" and "Are you currently taking any prescribed medication." These answers will assist with defining insomnia as a chronic problem or whether a few spells have arose and dissipated from the students.
Clark (1999) "proposed six processes that impede natural
self-correction of anxiety; safety-seeking behaviors,
attentional deployment, spontaneous imagery, emotional
reasoning, memory processes, and the nature of the threat
representation" (Clark, 1999, p. S5).
In terms of GTM, participants characterized with chronic insomnia (CI), through the questionnaire, will be paired with the participant with less insomnia (LI) criteria. GTM was conducted for one-hour sessions, which met twice of week for the duration of the 1st semester (18 weeks). During the session, CI expressed the concerns about school workload, their GPA, scholarship induced criteria, chronic joint pain or migraines, poor concentration, roommates, teachers, and employment. LI expressed the majority of the same concerns except for poor concentration and chronic joint pain or migraines and reported that they would carve out specific days (Wednesday, Friday and Sundays) to sleep in."

Sample of Sources Used:

Clark, D. (1999). Anxiety disorders: Why they persist and how to treat them. Behavior Research and Therapy, 37: S5-S27.
Harvey, A. (2002). A Cognitive model of insomnia. Behavior Research and Therapy, 40: 869-893.
Ohayon, M. (2005). Relationship between chronic painful physical condition and insomnia. Journal of Psychiatric Research, 39: 151-159.
Ohayon, M. (2006). Interlacing sleep, pain, mental disorders and organic diseases. Journal of Psychiatric Research, 40: 677-679.