Insomnia

Front 1

Predisposing factors

Back 1

genetic vulnerability to insomnia and the physiological state of hyperarousal. Hyperarousal is high physiological arousal when awake or asleep and it makes it more difficult for the individual to fall asleep

Front 2

Precipitating factors

Back 2

Stress or environmental change that may temporarily make it difficult to get to sleep. Environmental change includes changing time zones. Females suffer more from primary insomnia, as do older people, so both of these factors count as precipitating factors.

Front 3

perpetuating factors

Back 3

maintain insomnia when the precipitating factors are gone. They include being tense when going to sleep or the expectation of poor sleep. These are key to chronic primary insomnia

Front 4

IDA

Back 4

The theory is potentially socially sensitive as insomnia is an extremely debilitating condition which affects many people worldwide. any information which may influence treatment or attitudes towards the condition must be supported by plentiful and highly significant evidence; the probability the null hypothesis is true must be less than 1%

Front 5

Evidence - Watson (Predisposing)

Back 5

analysed data from the Washington state twin registry. collected data from 1041 MZ and 828 DZ twin paris: twin correlations were higher in Mz than in Dz twins for insomnia and heritability estimates were 57% for insomnia

Front 6

Watson Grounding

Back 6

This supports the they because it shows thatMZ twins are more likely to be genetically predisposed to have insomnia because it shows a genetic vulnerability to insomnia

Front 7

Evidence - NSF sleep (Precipitating)

Back 7

According to the NSF sleep in America poll, more women than men experience symptoms of insomnia at least a few nights a week (65 vs 54%) and they are more likely to have daytime sleepiness. One recent study found that overweight post-menopausal women who exercise in the morning experience less difficulty falling asleep and better quality sleep than evening exercisers.

Front 8

Ground NSF

Back 8

This study implies women are more likely to experience insomnia than men, and also suggests environmental factors such as exercise can also influence the quality of sleep. This indicates precipitating factors do affect sleep

Front 9

Evidence - Cognitive behavioral therapy (perpetuating)

Back 9

This trains people to use techniques that address the mental o cognitive factors associated with insomnia, such as the racing mind, and to overcome the worry and other negative emotions that accompany the experience of being unable to sleep. To study this, participants are randomly allocated to receive the treatment in question, non treatment or, in some cases, a placebo treatment. CBT for insomnia has been assessed in over 100 randomised controlled trials, and the results shoes that on average 70% of people with even very long term poor sleep obtain lasting benefits from the treatment

Front 10

Grounding CBT

Back 10

The success of CBT to treat insomnia suggests there is a psychological aspect to the disorder, and implies the way people think about sleep could be perpetuating factor

Front 11

AO3

Back 11

The NSF poll may have poor internal validity. The poll uses a questionnaire and the results may reflect differences in men and women willingness to admit to sleep problems rather than a genuine difference in sleep. This means that the internal validity of the study is compromised.

As such it does not offer strong empirical support for the theory

Front 12

Wider Evaluation - More research

Back 12

Acknowledges women are more susceptible to insomnia, not fully sure how to explain the biology behind this therefore more research needs to be done in this area.

In order to treat insomnia we will need to know as much about the condition as possible. Theory considers 3 prominent aspects of insomnia and this could lead to an effective treatment for it.

Front 13

Wider Evaluation - Useful - CBT

Back 13

The theory is useful as it has led to the development of CBT, an effective treatment to alleviate psychological factors affecting quality of sleep.