An investigation of the identification of subjective and objective daytime cognitive failures in people with psychophysiological insomnia and good sleeper controls

Individuals suffering from psychophysiological insomnia (PI) commonly report the experience of daytime cognitive deficits, such as poor concentration and an inability to complete daily tasks. The published nomenclature is consistent and reflective of these subjective accounts. However, to date there is little, or idiosyncratic, evidence of both subjective and objective daytime deficits in people with PI. This current study aims to assess whether daytime deficits can be detected in a PI population, through the inclusion of The Cognitive Failures Questionnaire (CFQ), a novel subjective report measure assessing everyday cognitive slips in functioning, and the Switching Attention Task (SAT), an objective psychomotor assessment. This current study has demonstrated that both the CFQ and the SATcomplex differentiate a group of PI from good sleeper controls (GS). The study concludes that the CFQ is a useful inclusion to PI research and provides more detailed evidence relating to the occurrence of daytime cognitive deficits in PI, however a measure with a stable multifactor may be more beneficial in future research. In addition, the significantly poorer performance of PI on the SATcomplex is discussed in relation to high cognitive load rather than gross cognitive deficit, and results from a SATsimple task and Digit Span Task aid this discussion and support the conclusion that deficits in PI are observed in relation to tasks that require the simultaneous activation of multiple cognitive resources.

Level dc:type.qualificationlevel

DClinPsy

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

University of Glasgow

Year dc:date.issued

2009

Author dc:creator

• Macphee, Lauren Margaret

• BF Psychology

Language dc:language

en