The facilitative effect of muscle tension-release in the relaxation treatment of sleep disturbance

Abstract

Sleep disturbed subjects were randomly assigned to one of four group therapy conditions: progressive relaxation with muscle tension-release, relaxation without tension-release, placebo, and no treatment. Subjects were instructed not toexpect improvement until after the final (fourth) therapy session. Progressive relaxation produced significantly greater improvement in reported latency to sleep onset than the three control conditions prior to the final session and was the only group to display greater improvement than no treatment after the final session. Five month follow-up revealed further gains for the progressive relaxation group Issues of active mechanisms, demand, and placebo are briefly discussed.