Multifactor Behavioral Treatment of Chronic Sleep-Onset Insomnia Using Stimulus Control and the Relaxation Response: A Preliminary Study

Authors
Gregg D. Jacobs, Paul A. Rosenberg, Richard Friedman, Jean Matheson, Guerry M. Peavy, Alice D. Domar, Herbert Benson
Publication
Behavior Modification
Volume 17, Issue 4
Abstract

Sleep latency changes following behavioral interventions for sleep-onset insomnia are only moderate because the majority of insomniacs do not achieve good sleeper status at posttreatment. This study evaluated the efficacy of a multifactor behavioral intervention consisting of stimulus control and relaxation-response training (n = 10) compared to stimulus control alone (n = 10) for sleep-onset insomnia. Only the multifactor subjects’ mean posttest sleep latency fell within the good sleeper range. They also exhibited a 77% improvement on mean sleep-onset latency compared to the stimulus control group (63%). Thus a multifactor intervention may be more effective than stimulus control alone for treatment of sleep-onset insomnia.

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