A small study of Toronto college
students is shedding light on a contributing factor of insomnia that
might be hard to admit – an adult fear of the dark.
Nearly half of the
students who reported having poor sleep also reported a fear of the
dark. Researchers confirmed this objectively by measuring blink
responses to sudden noise bursts in light and dark surroundings.
Good sleepers became accustomed to the noise bursts but the poor
sleepers grew more anticipatory when the lights were down.
“The poor sleepers
were more easily startled in the dark compared with the good
sleepers,” said Taryn Moss, the study’s lead author. “As treatment
providers, we assume that poor sleepers become tense when the lights
go out because they associate the bed with being unable to sleep.
Now we’re wondering how many people actually have an active and
untreated phobia.”
Colleen Carney, PhD,
the principal investigator, said insomnia treatments are highly
effective but not everyone responds or completely recovers. New
approaches may be warranted. For example, the most effective
insomnia treatments encourage people to leave the dark bedroom and
go into another, lit room; however, this would not be a way to treat
a dark-related phobia.
“We may need to add
treatment components for these patients and adapt existing treatment
components in light of the phobia,” Carney said. “A lot more
research is needed, but we believe we have stumbled across an unmet
treatment need for some poor sleepers.”
The abstract “Are
people with insomnia afraid of the dark? A pilot study” from Ryerson
University Sleep & Depression Lab is being presented at SLEEP 2012,
the 26th annual meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep
Societies (APSS) in Boston.
For more information
American Academy
of Sleep Medicine (MDN) |