Antonia Ypsilanti

Objectives: Insomnia disorder is a public health challenge associated with impaired cognitive functioning, reduced quality of life, and adverse mental health outcomes. This study examined the effectiveness of SleepCogni, an active-feedback device, in reducing insomnia symptom severity and improving perceived sleep quality in individuals with insomnia disorder.Method: A two-arm, parallel-group trial design was used, with 80 participants randomized to either the experimental group or the placebo control group. Participants provided self-reported measures of insomnia severity, sleep continuity, and user experience as main outcome variables.Results: Repeated measures analysis of variance showed that participants in the experimental group reported significantly greater improvements in insomnia symptom severity than the control group (Time × Treatment). Although the mean difference did not reach the threshold for clinical significance, 37.5% of the participants achieved this threshold within 1 week of treatment. Mixed-effects models showed significant improvements in sleep efficiency and total sleep time, based on sleep diary records. Finally, an independent samples t-test and content analysis indicated a more positive user experience in the experimental group.Conclusion: The SleepCogni device appears to be a useful tool for improving sleep outcomes in individuals with insomnia disorder, showing effects on both insomnia severity and subjectively evaluated sleep. The SleepCogni device presents a useful intervention that might be used alone or as a complement to increase the effectiveness of existing treatments, such as cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia.Clinical trial registration: https://osf.io/rswcb, identifier: osf-registrations-rswcb-v1.

Background: The present study examined, for the first time, the emotional burden of loneliness on dimensions of emotional valence and arousal, and its association with mental health outcomes. Method: A cross-sectional design was used, and data were collected from 503 adults across the UK with an online survey. Measures included socio-demographic characteristics, self-reported measures of loneliness and social isolation, affective ratings (i.e., valence and arousal) of loneliness experiences, and symptoms of depression and anxiety as mental health outcomes. Results: The emotional burden of loneliness differed significantly across groups with differing loneliness experiences, and females scored significantly higher in the emotional burden of loneliness than males. The emotional burden of loneliness was associated with both depression and anxiety symptoms, and respectively added 4.7% and 6.2% of the variance, on top of measures of loneliness frequency and social isolation. Conclusions: Measuring the valence and arousal dimensions of loneliness experiences advances our understanding of loneliness experiences and its association with mental health outcomes. The theoretical, methodological, and practical implications of our study are discussed.

In the present study, we examined, for the first time, the association between self-disgust, loneliness, and mental health difficulties in war veterans diagnosed with PTSD. For this purpose, we used a mixed methods design, incorporating surveys and a novel eye-tracking paradigm, and compared the findings from the PTSD veteran group (n = 19) to those from a general population group (n = 22). Our results showed that the PTSD veteran group reported almost three times higher scores in self-disgust, and significantly higher scores in loneliness and mental health difficulties (anxiety and depression), compared to the general population. Furthermore, self-disgust mediated the association between loneliness and anxiety symptoms in both groups. The results from the eye-tracking paradigm further showed that veterans with PTSD displayed a self-avoidance gaze pattern, by looking significantly more toward pictures of faces of unknown others and away from their own face—a pattern that was not replicated in the general population group. Higher self-disgust scores were significantly associated with longer total gaze to the pictures of others (vs. the self). Our findings have implications for the role of self-disgust in the mental health of war veterans.

Loneliness is prevalent worldwide and is a known risk factor for numerous physical and mental health outcomes. The health consequences of chronic loneliness coupled with the cost on public health care has necessitated the development of interventions and campaigns to end loneliness globally. According to a recent meta-analysis, such interventions focus on improving social skills, increasing opportunities for social contact/support (i.e., reducing social isolation) or addressing maladaptive cognition (e.g., irrational thoughts, self-defeating, and self-blame thoughts). The results showed that changing maladaptive thoughts offer “the best chance” for alleviating feelings of loneliness. In accordance with the latter approach, this paper proposes a new paradigm in understanding and treating loneliness that takes into account self-disgust, an aversive self-conscious affective state that reflects disgust directed towards the self. Based on findings from published and unpublished data, it is argued that interventions against loneliness that focus exclusively on improving social skills and increasing opportunities for social contact may be ineffective because lonelier people experience more self-disgust, which makes them more socially inhibited and reluctant to connect with other people. Future interventions should consider self-disgust in the treatment of loneliness and explore ways to counter feelings of self-disgust.