Monash research reveals the impact of bed partners on insomnia patients
At this year’s SLEEP Meeting in Boston, Monash Institute of Cognitive & Clinical Neurosciences (MICCN) postdoctoral research fellow, Dr Alix Mellor, revealed that bed partners may unintentionally contribute to the perpetuation of insomnia.
Dr Mellor coordinates the National Health and Medical Research (NHMRC) funded project, Researching Effective Sleep Treatments (REST), led by Professor Sean P.A. Drummond. The research is the first intervention of its kind to involve the bed partner in treatment. It has the potential to generate breakthrough discoveries, with preliminary results from Dr Mellor’s study showing that partners of people who have insomnia may unintentionally contradict their partner’s treatment recommendations.
Results have shown that 74 percent of partners encouraged an early bedtime or late wake time, which is in direct conflict with the principles of cognitive behavioural therapy for insomnia (CBTI). Approximately 42 percent also encouraged doing things in bed other than sleeping, such as reading or watching TV, while 35 percent encouraged naps, caffeine or reduced daytime activities.
“It is possible that partners are unwittingly perpetuating insomnia symptoms in the patient with insomnia,” said Dr Mellor. “It is therefore important for more data to be collected to determine whether insomnia treatments may better benefit patients and their partners by proactively assessing and addressing bed partner behaviours in treatment programs.”
Their results also show that bed partners adapted their behaviour to assist their partners with insomnia to improve their sleep. This was linked to more symptoms of anxiety in the partner, despite the insomnia patients perceiving the relationship to be more satisfying. One of the team’s Honours students, Ms Katherine Dixon, plans to study the impact of the intervention on symptoms of depression and anxiety in the client and partner.
This research has been published as an abstract in an online supplement of the journal Sleep, and was presented in Boston in June 2017 at SLEEP 2017, the 31st Annual Meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies LLC (APSS), which is a joint venture of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine and the Sleep Research Society.
Nearly 20 MICCN staff members and students presented at this year’s meeting, on a range of topics including biomarkers of alertness, circadian rhythms in cancer, shift work for fire-fighters, and insomnia diagnosis and management.
For more information on Dr Mellor’s study, visit the MICCN website. To participate, visit insomnia.org.au.
More information on MICCN’s Sleep Program can be found here, and within the MICCN Sleep Program video.
Follow MICCN: Twitter and Facebook