Conference Proceedings

2008 Scottish Undergraduate Conference

Conference Venue: University of Abertay, Dundee
Scottish Branch

From: 12 Mar 2008
To: 12 Mar 2008

 
Individual Paper(s)

The emotional reactions of good sleepers and poor sleepers to sleep-related words.

Louise Beattie
University of Glasgow


Objectives: To investigate emotional responses of good and poor sleepers to sleep cues, and further characterise the nature of insomnia.

Design: The role of anxiety and attention (Harvey, 2002) and intention to sleep (Espie et al, 2006) have been emphasised in models of insomnia. As insomniacs react differently to sleep-related words than good sleepers (Marchetti et al, 2006), and as smiling to positive words and frowning to negative words is automatic (Neumann et al, 2005), sleep-related words are used as stimuli.

Methods: Twenty students viewed a randomised series of positive and negative sleep-related words while their corrugator supercilii and zygomaticus major muscles were recorded with electromyogram. They then completed questionnaires on sleep habits, and anxiety and depression levels.

Results: Poor sleepers are expected to respond differently to sleep-related words than good sleepers.

Conclusions: This would support Harvey’s (2002) cognitive model of insomnia, and the attention-intention-effort model of insomnia (Espie et al, 2006).