Effectiveness of cognitive behavior therapy on cognitive and emotional variables on insomnia in students of the University of Kurdistan in 2016

The aim of this study was to assess the effectiveness of cognitive behavior therapy on dysfunctional beliefs and attitudes about sleep, rumination, worry and pre-sleep arousal in students with insomnia of the University of Kurdistan.
This was a semi-experimental study conducted in a pretest-posttest design with a control group. The study population consisted of all students who were educating at the University of Kurdistan in the academic year of 2015-16. The study sample consisted of 34 students with insomnia that were selected by convenience sampling, 17-person experimental and control groups and completed Insomnia Severity Index, Dysfunctional Beliefs and Attitudes about Sleep Scale, the Ruminative Response Scale, Penn State Worry Questionnaire and Pre-Sleep Arousal Scale. Experimental group received 12 sessions of 75 minutes about Cognitive behavior therapy for insomnia, but the control group received no intervention. The data were analyzed by descriptive and repeated measures statistical tests.
Results showed that test scores for insomnia severity (41%), dysfunctional beliefs and attitude about sleep (35%), rumination (29%), worry (44%) and pre-sleep arousal (26%) significantly reduced in the experimental group as compared to control group participants, in both post-test and follow-up (p Based on findings of this research, cognitive and emotional variables can be considered as key intermediates of therapeutic efficacy in cognitive behavior therapy. Therefore, exclusive treatments focusing on these variables may lead to better treatment outcomes.