The Effectiveness of Mindfulness-based Cognitive Therapy on Sleep Quality of Students with Social Anxiety Disorder

Abstract

Background and Objective: Anxiety disorders are usually accompanied with sleep disorders. Since limited studies have focused on the effectiveness of mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) on anxiety-related problems such as sleep disorders, the current research was conducted to investigate the effectiveness of this intervention on sleep problems.
 Materials and Methods: This study was a clinical trial with control and treatment groups. The sample consisted of 24 university students diagnosed with social anxiety disorder (SAD). Social Interaction Anxiety Scale (SIAS) and Pitts-burgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) were used to assess the dependent variables. There were measurements during pre-test, post-test, and follow-up stages.
 Results: The treatment could significantly improve the anxiety and sleeping problems in patients with social anxiety. Assessing the aspects of sleep quality showed that the intervention could improve the subjective aspects, latency, dis-turbance, and daily dysfunctions of sleep effectively; however, there was no significant effect on the duration of sleep, taking sleep medications, or sleep efficiency.
 Conclusion: Mindfulness treatment could be used for improving sleep quality in patients with social anxiety. This treatment could also improve the aspects of sleep quality which are related to sleep threshold.

How relative deprivation affects the sleep quality of Chinese college students: testing an integrated model of social anxiety and trait mindfulness

“…Regarding the second part of the mediation effect, higher levels of social anxiety were associated with poorer sleep quality in college students, which is consistent with prior studies ( Mohammadi et al, 2020 ). This result further validates the cognitive maintenance model of insomnia ( Harvey, 2002 ), wherein an individual’s anxiety triggers their attention and monitoring of their negative emotions.…”

“…Furthermore, social anxiety, as an important indicator of mental health, is closely related to sleep quality; participants with social anxiety disorder reported poorer sleep quality than healthy participants did ( Horenstein et al, 2019 ; Mohammadi et al, 2020 ). The maintenance cognitive model of insomnia highlights that anxiety states trigger the individual’s selective attention and monitoring of internal and external sleep-related threat cues, leading to an overestimation of the extent of the perceived sleep deficit and daytime performance reduction ( Harvey, 2002 ).…”

Is decreasing problematic mobile phone use a pathway for alleviating adolescent depression and sleep disorders? A randomized controlled trial testing the effectiveness of an eight-session mindfulness-based intervention

“…Previous studies employing the CAMM have provided evidence that mindfulness training significantly improves the levels of mindfulness among adolescents, with effect sizes ranging from small to moderate (e.g., Bluth & Eisenlohr-Moul, 2017 ; Bluth, Roberson, & Gaylord, 2015 ; Tan & Martin, 2013 ). In addition, the results coincide with those of meta-analytic studies on the effects of MBCT on depression ( Goldberg et al., 2019 ; Kuyken et al., 2016 ; McCartney et al., 2021 ) and RCTs on sleep disorders ( Camino et al., 2022 ; Javadi & Ghorbani, 2019 ). Although the effects of MBCT interventions on depression and sleep disorders have been well established, these studies have mainly focused on adults, especially patients who were clinically diagnosed with depressive disorder, generalized anxiety disorder, or sleep disorders (e.g., Javadi & Ghorbani, 2019 ; Nikkhah et al., 2019 ).…”

“…Many studies have demonstrated the effectiveness of MBCT in reducing depression ( Goldberg et al., 2019 ; Simonsson, Bazin, Fisher, & Goldberg, 2021 ) and sleep disorders ( Javadi & Ghorbani, 2019 ; Nikkhah, Haghani, & Aghaali Tari, 2019 ). For instance, meta-analytic studies have demonstrated the efficacy of MBCT in reducing depression in patients in remission ( Kuyken et al., 2016 ) and preventing depression relapse in the long term ( McCartney et al., 2021 ).…”

“…For instance, meta-analytic studies have demonstrated the efficacy of MBCT in reducing depression in patients in remission ( Kuyken et al., 2016 ) and preventing depression relapse in the long term ( McCartney et al., 2021 ). Moreover, there is growing evidence indicating that MBCT is effective in improving subjective sleep quality, sleep latency, sleep duration, and sleep disturbances in patients with generalized anxiety disorder ( Javadi & Ghorbani, 2019 ) and college students with depression disorder ( Nikkhah et al., 2019 ). Empirical research has also confirmed the positive effects of MBCT on problematic behaviors, including substance use disorders ( Hamonniere & Billieux, 2023 ; Hoppes, 2006 ) and, specifically, problematic mobile phone use (e.g., Lan et al., 2018 ; Li et al., 2018 ).…”