The effectiveness of compassion-focused therapy (CFT) on subjective well-being of students with sleep disorders

Students are one of the susceptible groups for sleep disorders. High prevalence of psychological stresses and rumination in this group disturb the quality and quantity of sleep. Studies have shown that psychological treatments can improve sleep disorders. Therefore, the purpose of this research was to study the effectiveness of compassion-focused therapy (CFT) on subjective well-being of the students with sleep disorders. The research method was semi-experimental and pre-test and post- test design with control group. The statistical population of this study was students with sleep disorders in Payame noor University of Ghahderijan city during the years 2017-2018. The sample was 30 students from this population that were selected by available sampling method and randomly assigned to two experimental and control groups (15 individuals for each group). Participants in the experimental group participated in 8 weekly sessions, 90 minutes of CFT, while the control group did not receive any interventions. Both groups completed subjective well-being questionnaire and sleep disorders questionnaire in pre-test and post-test. Data were analyzed using univariate and multivariate covariance analysis using SPSS-16. The results of multivariate covariance analysis indicated a significant difference between the two groups of experiment and control in all research variables (p=0.002). In addition, this intervention affected the components of subjective well-being (positive and negative affective) (p<0.05). According to the finding of this study, the efficacy of CFT on subjective well-being of the students with sleep disorder is confirmed. Therefore, interventions based on this approach can be useful for the students with sleep disorders.