Abstract
Previous research suggests that certain dimensions of perfectionism are associated with insomnia. However, the exact processes whereby perfectionism may influence sleep have as yet remained unexplored. The present study tested the hypothesis that perfectionistic individuals are particularly prone to engage in counterfactual thinking and to experience counterfactual emotions (regret, shame, and guilt) at bedtime, which have been shown to impair sleep. One hundred eighty university students completed questionnaires on perfectionism, counterfactual processing, and insomnia severity. Analyses revealed that three dimensions of perfectionism were significantly related to insomnia severity: Concern over mistakes and doubts about action showed positive correlations, whereas organization showed a negative correlation. Moreover, the frequency of counterfactual thoughts and emotions at bedtime largely mediated the effects of these dimensions of perfectionism on insomnia severity. These findings highlight how personality-related patterns of behavior may translate into affective arousal at bedtime, thereby increasing the risk of insomnia.
Highlights
Insomnia symptoms are widely spread in the general population
In support of this hypothesis, we found that university students reported often experiencing counterfactual thoughts and emotions at bedtime and that the frequency of such thoughts and emotions was linked to insomnia severity (Schmidt and Van der Linden, 2009)
According to the norms for the Insomnia Severity Index (ISI) provided by Bastien et al (2001), 30.7% of our participants did not show any sign of clinically significant insomnia prior to the experiment, 48.3% gave evidence of subthreshold insomnia, and 14.4% could be considered as suffering from moderate clinical insomnia, whereas no participant obtained scores corresponding to severe clinical insomnia
Summary
Insomnia symptoms are widely spread in the general population. 59% of adults in the United States experience at least one symptom of insomnia every night or almost every night according to a recent poll of the National Sleep Foundation (National Sleep Foundation, 2015). A consistent body of research suggests that several personality traits of the internalizing spectrum may predispose for and perpetuate insomnia, in particular neuroticism and anxiety (Vincent et al, 2009; van de Laar et al, 2010). It has been shown that certain personality traits of the externalizing spectrum may represent risk factors for insomnia, for instance, impulsive urgency (e.g., Schmidt et al, 2010a)
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