Trait Arousal Research Articles

Effect of cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia on sleep quality among college students: the role of hyperarousal and dysfunctional beliefs

ABSTRACT Background Although cognitive-behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) is an effective treatment for sleep disorders, little is known about the role of hyperarousal (especially trait arousal) in CBT-I interventions. Therefore, this study investigated the role of trait arousal in the maintenance of sleep problems using cross-sectional and longitudinal methods. Methods Study 1, 1209 Chinese university students (63.9% female) completed the Dysfunctional Beliefs and Attitudes about Sleep (DBAS-16), Pre-sleep Arousal Scale (PSAS), Arousal Predisposition Scale (APS), and Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI). The study calculated the moderating role of trait arousal in the relationship between dysfunctional beliefs about sleep and sleep quality. In study two, 89 participants completed the questionnaire used in Study 1 during pre-and post-treatment. A within-subjects mediation analysis examined the indirect effects of dysfunctional beliefs about sleep pre-sleep arousal (cognitive and somatic) on sleep quality. A within-subjects moderation analysis was used to investigate whether baseline trait arousal moderated sleep quality. Results Cross-sectional findings indicated that pre-sleep cognitive arousal mediated the effects of dysfunctional beliefs about sleep on sleep quality and that trait arousal moderated the first half of the mediating pathway described above; longitudinal analyses indicated that changes in dysfunctional beliefs about sleep and pre-sleep cognitive arousal mediated changes in sleep quality, and that, in addition, trait arousal moderated changes in sleep quality. Conclusion Trait arousal correlates with the maintenance of sleep problems, and participants with higher trait arousal benefited less from CBT-I. Enhancement programs that incorporate mindfulness may be a direction for future research.

How anxious is too anxious? State and trait physiological arousal predict anxious youth\u2019s treatment response to brief cognitive behavioral therapy

BackgroundExposure therapy is the gold standard for treating childhood anxiety, yet not all youth improve. Children do not always have insight on their distress, which can limit the utility of self-reported units of distress (SUDS) during exposures. Physiological assessment provides an objective means of monitoring emotional arousal. Electrodermal activity (EDA) in particular indexes sympathetic nervous system arousal which is heavily linked to anxiety. The aim of the current study was to examine the feasibility and utility of incorporating EDA assessment in an in-session exposure. We examined concordance between EDA and SUDS, and whether either predicted treatment response.MethodsThirty-four youth who met DSM-5 criteria for generalized, separation, and/or social anxiety disorder completed brief CBT (8 sessions) and completed a survey on trait physiological arousal. EDA and SUDS were collected from 18 youth (9 female, ages 9–14) during a mid-treatment exposure. Changes in anxiety severity were examined post-treatment.ResultsSUDS were not correlated with trait or state physiological arousal. There was a large association between heightened sympathetic arousal and poorer post-treatment response. Similarly, SUDS indices of greater fear activation and habituation were associated with poorer post-treatment response with a small to moderate effect size. Supplemental analyses among the full sample aligned: trait physiological arousal predicted poorer treatment response.ConclusionsThe lack of concordance between sympathetic arousal and SUDS indices highlights the limitations of relying solely on SUDS with pediatric populations. EDA provided unique data on youth’s distress during exposures. Thus, results indicate that physiological assessment may exhibit clinical utility for aiding clinicians in monitoring youth’s progress in exposure therapy.Trial RegistrationClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT02259036.

0354 Trait and State Arousal in Insomnia: Utility of Patient-reported Emotional Reactivity and Somatic Arousal in Clinical Samples

0354 Trait and State Arousal in Insomnia: Utility of Patient-reported Emotional Reactivity and Somatic Arousal in Clinical Samples

Night Games and Sleep: Physiological, Neuroendocrine, and Psychometric Mechanisms.

Night games are a regular occurrence for team-sport athletes, yet sleep complaints following night competitions are common. The mechanisms responsible for reported sleep difficulty in athletes are not understood. An observational crossover design investigating a night netball game and a time-matched rest day in 12 netball athletes was conducted to ascertain differences in physiological (core temperature), psychometric (state and trait), and neuroendocrine (adrenaline, noradrenaline, and cortisol) responses. Following the night game, athletes experienced reduced sleep durations, lower sleep efficiency, early awakenings, and poorer subjective sleep ratings compared with the rest day. No differences were found between core temperature, state psychometric measures, and cortisol at bedtime. Adrenaline and noradrenaline concentrations were elevated compared with the time-matched rest day prior to (26.92 [15.88] vs 12.90 [5.71] and 232.6 [148.1] vs 97.83 [36.43]nmol/L, respectively) and following the night game (18.67 [13.26] vs 11.92 [4.56] and 234.1 [137.2] vs 88.58 [54.08]nmol/L, respectively); however, the concentrations did not correlate to the sleep variables (duration, efficiency, and sleep-onset latency). A correlation (rs = -.611) between sleep efficiency and hyperarousal (trait psychometric measure) was found. Athletes experienced poor sleep following a night game. Furthermore, results suggest that athletes who have a tendency toward a high trait arousal may be more susceptible to sleep complaints following a night game. These data expand knowledge and refute frequently hypothesized explanations for poor sleep following night competition. The results may also help support staff and coaches target strategies for individual athletes at a higher risk of sleep complaints.

Affective Personality Traits in Olfactory Dysfunction: the Role of Dysthymia and Arousal

IntroductionOlfactory dysfunction can have a negative impact on emotional well-being. The aim of the present study was to examine associations between olfactory deficits and two affective personality characteristics (trait anxiety/trait depression).MethodsA questionnaire study was conducted with a total of 116 participants (33 classified as anosmic, 40 as hyposmic, and 39 as normosmic). All participants gave self-reports on two facets of trait depression (dysthymia, euthymia) and trait anxiety (arousal, worrying). Due to the fact that in all three groups, trait depression and anxiety were substantially correlated, analyses of covariance were conducted.ResultsAfter controlling for trait depression, anosmic and hyposmic patients showed lower trait arousal compared to normosmic controls (partial η2 = .05). After controlling for trait anxiety, patients scored higher on dysthymia (partial η2 = .06).ConclusionsThis study underlines the importance of statistically isolating specific associations between each of these affective personality characteristics and olfactory dysfunction.ImplicationsThe present findings suggest that olfactory dysfunction can have opposite effects on facets of trait depression and trait anxiety.

Attachment Representations and Brain Asymmetry during the Processing of Autobiographical Emotional Memories in Late Adolescence.

Frontal and parietal asymmetries have repeatedly been shown to be related to specific functional mechanisms involved in emotion regulation. From a developmental perspective, attachment representations based on experiences with the caregiver are theorized to serve regulatory functions and influence how individuals deal with emotionally challenging situations throughout the life span. This study aimed to investigate neural substrates of emotion regulation by assessing state- and trait dependent EEG asymmetries in secure, insecure-dismissing and insecure-preoccupied subjects. The sample consisted of 40 late adolescents. The Adult Attachment Interview was administered and they were asked to report upon personally highly salient emotional memories related to anger, happiness and sadness. EEG was recorded at rest and during the retrieval of each of these emotional memories, and frontal and parietal hemispheric asymmetry were analyzed. We found attachment representations to differentially affect both the frontal and parietal organization of hemispheric asymmetry at rest and (for parietal region only) during the retrieval of emotional memories. During rest, insecure-dismissing subjects showed an elevated right-frontal brain activity and a reduced right-parietal brain activity. We interpret this finding in light of a disposition to use withdrawal strategies and low trait arousal in insecure-dismissing subjects. Emotional memory retrieval did not affect frontal asymmetry. However, both insecure groups showed an increase in right-sided parietal activity indicating increased arousal during the emotional task as compared to the resting state suggesting that their emotion regulation capability was especially challenged by the retrieval of emotional memories while securely attached subjects maintained a state of moderate arousal. The specific neurophysiological pattern of insecure-dismissing subjects is discussed with regard to a vulnerability to affective disorders.

Relationship of daytime fatigue and hyperarousal in patients with primary insomnia

To study the relationship between daytime fatigue and hyperarousal in patients with primary insomnia. One hundred and sixty eighty patients with primary insomnia as research group and 149 healthy people as control group were recruited during November 2013 to December 2014 in the psychiatry department of the Third Affiliated Hospital, Sun Yat-sen University. The Hyperarousal Scale (HAS), Pre-Sleep Arousal Scale (PSAS), Fatigue scale-14 (FS-14) and a visual analogue scale (VAS) were used to evaluate the symptom of hyperarousal trait, pre-sleep arousal, daytime fatigue and self reported sleep quality respectively. The participants in research group had more severe symptoms of hyperarousal trait [(41.9±9.7) vs (27.6±7.0)], pre-sleep arousal [(42.0±7.3) vs (22.1±4.7)], daytime fatigue [(9.2±3.1) vs (3.0±0.7)] than those in control group. According the multiple linear regressions, the daytime fatigue in research group was positively related not only to sleep quality, but also to hyperarousal trait and pre-sleep arousal. Hyperarousal is an important factor which could affect the daytime fatigue in patients with primary insomnia and should be given more attention to.

State–trait arousal and daytime sleepiness after sleep restriction

The importance of an arousal system in the regulation of sleepiness has been widely recognised in contexts of insomnia theory and research. Arousal is also incorporated in some general models of sleepiness and is considered one of the principal factors regulating sleepiness in a model by De Valck and Cluydts (2003), in which arousal has both state and trait components. In the present experimental study, we explored the effects of state and trait components of arousal on subjective sleepiness and sleep latency during daytime. On a day after partial sleep deprivation, 28 good sleepers aged 18–26years took part in two successive experimental conditions, in which the state arousal was manipulated by laboratory tasks. We measured physiological (heart rate, frequency of skin conductance responses) and subjective (Energy, Tension, Anxiety) indices of state arousal, while trait arousal was operationalised as electrodermal lability. After a moderately stressful task, which induced a relatively higher state arousal, the participants reported lower sleepiness and took longer to fall asleep than after a simple psychomotor task. Trait arousal was not associated with daytime sleepiness. The results of this study support the idea that short-term changes of state arousal are important for the regulation of sleepiness in good sleepers, even in a situation which is only moderately stressful.

I'm too calm—Let's take a risk! On the impact of state and trait arousal on risk taking

Theories of an optimal level of arousal suggest that underaroused humans seek stimulation to enhance their arousal. One way to increase arousal is risky behavior during gambling. In the current study, we show that the lower the participants' resting arousal, measured via resting heart rate, the riskier they acted in a gamble and the faster they responded, indicating less impulse control. Participants with low resting heart rate also perceived the risk options in the gamble as less arousing and less risky compared to participants with higher resting heart rate. Partial correlations show that resting heart rate, risk behavior, and ratings were interrelated. After physical exercise, participants tended to behave less risky in the gamble compared to a control condition without exercise. Thus, both trait and state arousal effects indicate an inverse relationship of arousal and risky behavior.

An Investigation of the Relationship Between Mindfulness, Preshot Routine, and Basketball Free Throw Percentage

Seventeen (17) members of three NCAA Division I men’s basketball teams completed measures of mindfulness and sport-related anxiety to examine the relationship between mindfulness, preshot routine, trait arousal, and basketball free throw shooting percentage. It was hypothesized that (a) mindfulness scores would predict game free throw shooting percentage, (b) practice free throw percentage (indicative of basic skill) would predict game free throw percentage, and (c) consistency in the length of prefree throw routine would predict game free throw percentage. Results indicate that levels of mindfulness significantly predict game free throw percentage and that practice free throw percentage also predicts game free throw percentage. Length and/or consistency of preshot routine were not predictive. Although not proposed as a hypothesis, a statistically significant relationship was also found between an athlete’s year in school (which reflects competitive basketball experience) and game free throw percentage. Together, these results clearly suggest that the combination of mindfulness, skill (practice free throw percentage), and competitive experience (year in school) all contribute to the prediction of competitive free throw percentage and that these variables are more central to successful free throw percentage at this level of competition than length/consistency of one’s preshot routine.

Class clowns as a function of the Type T psychobiological personality

Counselors and teachers often deal with the ubiquitous class clown. With the drop-out rate increasing, new methods must be tested. The purpose of this study was to test a new method, the Farley Type T Theory, as a possible future treatment plan. Class clowns were teacher selected from 2nd and 3rd grade students and then compared to their nonclown classmates on a putative measure of trait arousal to test Farley's Type T Theory of psychobiological motives for disruptive behavior. This theory suggests a need-for-stimulation motive of behavior due to an arousal deficit. The physiological measure of arousal was the Strahan Sweat Bottle method, and it was predicted that class clowns would indicate lower levels of trait arousal. The results confirmed Farley's hypothesis that class clowns were Type T individuals. This helps the counselor or teacher to “reframe” a student's behavior from a typical psychological model to a psychobiological model that also offers suggestions for treatment as well as future research.

The role of arousal in predicting impulsive and reflective children

The purpose of this study was to test a hypothesis arising from Farley's theory of arousal and stimulation seeking behavior. Specifically, the hypothesis was that impulsive children would be low arousal/high stimulation seekers while reflective children would be high arousal/low stimulation seekers. Seventy-one elementary school children were identified as reflective or impulsive using Kagan's Matching Familiar Figures Test. Trait arousal levels were then determined using the Strahan Sweat Bottle method. The results confirmed the hypothesis.

Arousal, Stimulation Seeking, and Teaching-Style Preference

Teaching-style preference was examined as a function of individual differences in physiological arousal and stimulation seeking. Twenty-nine school teachers were given the Sensation Seeking Scale, the Two-Flash Threshold (TFT) measure of trait arousal and a teacher questionnaire designed to measure teaching-style preference from a range of (formal) to (informal). A statistically significant correlation between the TFT and the teacher questionnaire indicated that teachers identified as low arousal tended to prefer a traditional style and those identified as high arousal tended to prefer an open style of teaching. Implications of the above findings are discussed.