Year: 2016
Type: article
Abstract: The notion of “sleep perception” includes two important psychological aspects: the ability to recognize \none’s own sleep, by discriminating it from the waking state, and the way in which sleep quality is judged, \nthat is the “subjective sleep perception”. These two facets, which are strictly related, are both modulated \nby individual variables, such as personal emotional experience in relation to disturbed sleep, and the \nindividual’s beliefs on what the characteristics of a “good sleep” should be (e.g., how much sleep is enough \nfor efficient diurnal functioning). \nFurthermore, in a more general sense, sleep perception may also involve the ability to correctly detect \nsignals of sleep propensity (both physiological and behavioural), which influence the subject’s choice of \nbedtime. \nThus, from a clinical perspective, the presence of specific “sleep perception biases” may at least partly \nexplain the development and maintenance of insomnia. \nFirst of all, insomniacs show difficulties in correctly discriminating sleep from wakefulness. They tend to \noverestimate the duration of waking periods, both in proximity to sleep onset and during the sleep episode, \nwith a consequent underestimation of total sleep time. \nThese misperceptions, together with erroneous beliefs on how long a “good sleep” should be, contribute to \ndetermine insomniac’s bad subjective perception of sleep, and thus a global dissatisfaction with its quality. \nInsomniacs’ sleep misperception may also concern sleep signals. This would explain their tendency to refer \nmore to external (e.g. time of day) than to internal (e.g. tiredness, burning or heavy eyes, yawning) markers \nwhen deciding the most appropriate moment for sleep. This kind of phase shift between the individual’s \ndecision and physiological sleep propensity may increase the subject’ \ns problems in falling asleep. \nIn light of the importance of these psychological factors in the development and maintenance of insomnia, \ncognitive-behavioural interventions may focus on several objectives, such as: correcting beliefs on optimal \nsleep characteristics, improving recognition of sleep propensity signals, increasing the ability to use these \nsignals to synchronize sleep habits with moments of maximal sleep propensity
Language: Italian
Topic: Sleep and related disorders
Subfield: Experimental and Cognitive Psychology
Field: Psychology
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2727566854