Abstract
The purpose of this study was to examine the influence of pre-sleep selective attention on sleep onset insomnia in daily life using a two-week homework procedure. Thirteen university students with sleep onset insomnia were divided into experimental group and control group. For the latter week, the experimental group performed Breath Counting Exercise as training to control their attention before sleep every night. To investigate the differences in the Pre-sleep Selective Attention Scale (PSAS), Pre-Sleep Cognitive Activity Scale (PCAS) score and mean Sleep Onset Latency (SOL) between experimental group and control group, two way MANOVAs (2 Condition × 2 Times) were performed. The analysis of PSAS score indicated significant interaction effect for Condition by Time (F(1,11)=6.24, p=.030). The analysis of PCAS Factor 2 (Anxiety for Sleep Onset Insomnia) score indicated marginally significant interaction effect (F(1,11)=3.78, p=.078). The analysis of mean SOL indicated marginally significant interaction effect (F(1.11)=3.35, p=.095). The results of this study suggested that attentional bias contributes to maintenance of sleep onset insomnia. And attention control by the Breath Counting Exercise is effective in treating sleep onset insomnia.
