Citation Poster--Neuroflexibility and Sleep Quality: The Ability to Self-Regulate Alpha
Insomnia is a common complaint of college students. Buckelew, DeGood et al. (2009) found evidence for an EEG disregulation (or neuroflexibility) model for poor sleepers with persistent delayed sleep onset. Students, who were poor sleepers, demonstrated impaired ability to suppress theta while partic...
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| Published in: | Applied psychophysiology and biofeedback Vol. 37; no. 4; p. 307 |
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| Main Authors: | , , , , |
| Format: | Journal Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Springer
01-12-2012
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | Get full text |
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| Summary: | Insomnia is a common complaint of college students. Buckelew, DeGood et al. (2009) found evidence for an EEG disregulation (or neuroflexibility) model for poor sleepers with persistent delayed sleep onset. Students, who were poor sleepers, demonstrated impaired ability to suppress theta while participating in a listening task when compared with good sleepers. The current study was designed to assess voluntary EEG activation/deactivation control, utilizing alpha feedback (both enhance and suppress) during biofeedback conditions. It was hypothesized that good sleepers would demonstrate better alpha control (i.e., neuroflexibility) than poor sleepers. Out of 114 college students, 10 good sleepers and 10 poor sleepers were identified. Poor sleepers attained a score of above a 5 on the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Inventory (PSQI) and reported trouble sleeping (taking 30 min or longer to go to sleep) for at least 1 month. Each of the 20 participants participated in a baseline, eyes open alpha enhancement, eyes open alpha suppression, eyes closed alpha enhancement, eyes closed alpha suppression, and baseline segments. EEG was recorded from a Cz placement, using the Procomp Infiniti. Both auditory and visual feedback were provided during the enhance and suppress conditions. In addition to sleep differences, the two groups differed on a Trait Anxiety Measure and age with the poor sleepers reporting greater anxiety (M = 47.78, SD = 10.75, M = 34.90, SD = 7.82, respectively) and were older (M = 24.5, SD = 6.9, M = 19, SD = 1.49) than good sleepers. Across the four biofeedback conditions, there were significant task x group interactions for mean alpha, F (3, 54) = 5.32, p = .02, and alpha power, F (3, 54) = 4.4, p = .04. It appears that poor sleepers demonstrated more difficulty with alpha control. This study provides additional support for impaired nueroflexibility for college students with delayed sleep onset difficulties. These results suggest a trial of alpha activation and deactivation biofeedback may be an appropriate intervention as an adjunct to cognitive behavioral sleep interventions for that subset of college students with impaired neuroflexibility. Keywords * EEG * Sleep * Self regulation |
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| ISSN: | 1090-0586 |