The Role of Dysfunctional Beliefs and Attitudes about Sleep (DBAS), Rumination, Psychological Inflexibility, and Insomnia Among College Students

The purpose of the study was to understand additional variables that play a role between insomnia and the inability to stay present with internal feelings/emotions (i.e., psychological inflexibility) among college students. These variables that were predicted to help explain this relationship include dysfunctional sleep-related cognitions and insomnia rumination. To do this, college students were surveyed online at the start of the study and one month later. In addition, to be included in the study they must have been enrolled in a 2- or 4-year university, have access to the internet, and not diagnosed with another sleep disorder. Participants (n = 490) were from the mountain west and Midwest region of the U.S. A majority of participants were composed of college students who are full-time (94.7%), undergraduate (99.8%), female (75.1%), or White (83.7%). Results showed psychological inflexibility, dysfunctional sleep-related cognitions, insomnia rumination, and insomnia were significantly correlated with each other. The main analysis (i.e., serial mediation), showed that dysfunctional sleep-related cognitions, insomnia rumination helped explain the relationship between psychological inflexibility and insomnia. These results suggest there is potential to assisting future interventions by understanding and targeting these negative repetitive thoughts (i.e., dysfunctional sleep-related cognitions and insomnia rumination). Future studies should aim to uncover treatment outcomes for these variables