Effects of Intrusive Worrying in Primary insomnia

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Effects of intrusive worrying in Primary insomnia

An examination of primary insomnia and normal sleepers was conducted to inquire if intrusive worrying serves as consequences of sleep disturbance. According to Medscape, Primary insomnia is sleeplessness that is not attributable to a medical, psychiatric, or environmental cause. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorder, Fourth Edition, Text Revision (DSM-IV-TR) set forth five diagnostic criteria for primary insomnia. The main symptom according to the DSM-IV-TR is difficulty initiating or maintaining sleep, or suffering from non restorative sleep, for at least one month. About.com defines intrusive thoughts as thoughts that are unwanted, feel uncontrollable, and often pertain to disturbing or distressing themes, such as: worrying constantly about something bad will happen.

Primary insomnia patients engage in a fury of thought battle at night. These thought battles are likely to stimulate additional worrisome behavior and maintain sleep disturbance. A frequent answer giving by patients with intrusive thinking is “my mind keeps racing.” There is widespread acceptance that intrusive thinking at bedtime characterizes Primary insomnia (e.g. Borkovec, 1982). Despite evidence of; mental events disrupting sleep, Primary insomnia patients description of pre-sleep thoughts as intrusive, uncontrollable and negative (Harvey, 2000; Kuisk, Bertelson, & Walsh, 1989), and attributing sleeping difficulties to intrusions (Broman & Hetta, 1994; Espie, Brooks, & Lindsay, 1989; Lichstein & Rosenthal, 1980; Nicassio, Mendlowitz, Fussell, & Petras, 1985), theoretical explanations for why intrusive pre-sleep thinking characterizes primary insomnia remain lacking (Waine, Broomfiel...

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