Single System Research Design : Effect Of Meditation On Sleep

AbstractThe paper summarizes a single-system design aimed at improving the participant's score on the Clinical Assessment of Anxiety through the intervention of meditative breathing. A baseline of three weeks was measured followed by four weeks of treatment phase. During the treatment phase, the participant completed meditative breathing exercise three times daily for five days each week. The participant completed the Clinical Assessment of Anxiety each Friday of the treatment phase. The results indicated improvement in the scores, however the participant's score never got below the clinical cutting score of 30.

Purpose: To inform the audience about what sleep is and how it helps the body.

In my paper, I will tackle insomnia from various perspectives: definitions, types, causes, effects, and means of solutions.

Ever since I have begun life at college, I have found going to bed on a decent time each night a very troublesome task. I wake up feeling very tired the next morning, and I always seem in a rush to get my day started. Because of staying up so late and then not waking up on time, I am sometimes late to work or class. In addition, I find myself very tired and stressed throughout the day. This in effect makes me often irritable toward other people. I am tired of living my life in a constant flurry every morning. Thus, the behavioral change that I would like to alter is my sleeping schedule. Being tired after a night of sleep just leads to anxiety and causes even

Thesis: Sleep plays an essential part in a person’s health and well-being; the way we feel while awake is dependent upon what happens to your body while asleep.

Ebben, M. R., & Narizhnaya, M. (2012). Cognitive and Behavioral Treatment Options for Insomnia. Mount Sinai Journal Of Medicine, 79(4)

The sleep assessment conducted on the patient had an interesting dynamic in how we think we sleep opposed to how our partner says we sleep. The patient wakes up every morning at 6 a.m. and takes a nap right after lunchtime approximately at 1 p.m. The daily naps, according to the patient, last about forty-five minutes to an hour. When asked about restlessness when waking up the patient with a stern voice and pointed finger says, "When I'm up I'm up and ready to go." The patient also explained that they have no trouble staying asleep; however going to sleep can be challenging depending on if anything troubling is on her mind.

The average human spends about 25 years of their life sleeping. That is equal to one-third of a person’s life. So if sleep is vital and common among every single human, what do you know about it? What happens when we sleep (Attention Grabber)? Before the 1950s, scientists believed that the brain would just “shut off” when we would go to sleep. It wasn’t until the discovery of the Rapid Eye Movement (REM) state that scientists really looked into what happens in the brain while we are asleep. Studies have found that we go through a cycle of stages during sleep, and it is important for our health (Orientation to Topic). Today, I am going to inform you about what really happens when we sleep, and some issues that are found among it (Specific Purpose). In order to really understand this worldwide commonality, you need to know some background on sleep, the stages in the cycle, and some common disorders (Central Idea). I have taken a year long psychology course that went into depth on sleep psychology, and I have done extensive research on the topic to better grasp it (Statement of Credibility). I want to inform you on sleep so you can understand what happens when you close your eyes every night, and so you can detect any irregularities in your sleep pattern (Statement of Goodwill). First, I will give a background of why and how we know to sleep, then I will explain the stages in the sleep cycle, and finally I will tell you about some common disorders (Preview).

Medicine is a common treatment for insomnia, but the effectiveness of medicine remains uncertain. It is unclear whether medicine has profound improvements in sleep or whether residual symptoms may hinder functioning more. The presence of residual symptoms has shown an association with an additional day of unrestful sleep.15 Yet, medicine has shown improvements in sleep and functioning, although weaker in comparison to CBT15 and Mongolian medical acupuncture.11 Bo et al. directly studied the relationship between acupuncture and medicine,11 while Morin et al. used the relationship between CBT alone or with medicine.13 Morin et al. lacked a medicine only group, but instead furthered their study to examine whether further treatment or no treatment in both groups were effective or not.13 Conflicting with Fitzgerald et al., Morin et al. showed tapering medicine in the extension group to show less improvement in functioning.13 Cancelation of medicine and continuation of CBT would have stopped the presence of residual symptoms and therefore would have shown improvement, but was not the case. Although both CBT and medicine were both effective in improving sleep and daytime functioning, only CBT showed significant reductions in anxiety, depression, and

Sleep is one of the unavoidable daily-living activities and it is one of the most important factors contributing to a person’s health. A quality sleep is essential for the physical, cognitive and psychological well-being of a person. Learning, memory processing and maintenance of the brain are among the most important functions of sleep. In addition to maintaining the brain, sleep has important roles in controlling the

Sleep is undoubtedly one of the most essential requirements for the human body to function properly. It plays a very important role in ensuring the wellness of the human body both physically as well as mentally. In fact, the importance of sleep is clear from the fact that it helps you in maintaining a good lifestyle throughout our entire lifetime. Not only does it help maintain our physical and mental health; rather it also helps in maintaining a decent and healthy lifestyle along with ensuring safety from a number of fatal diseases. It is usually said that the mood in which you wake up is largely dependent on the type of sleep you have been in. This in itself is a big proof of the importance of sleep in our lives. While sleeping, our body finally gets its share of rest and it also gets ample time in rejuvenating from all the wear and tear that it went through during the entire day. Not only this, the body is in its own working condition when we are sleeping as this is the time when it supports the healthy functioning of the brain as well as physical attributes of our body.

In a study used to determine the efficacy of paced breathing on insomnia and vagal activity 14 people with self reported insomnia (SRI) and 14 people who reported to be good sleepers (GS) were utilized to test the hypotheses that paced breathing would aid those with insomnia in falling asleep (Tsai, Kuo, Lee, & Yang, 2014). The study measured variables such as sleep quality, sleep effectiveness, Heart rate variability, and cardiac vagal tone. For the individuals to be allowed in the SRI group they had to have difficulty falling asleep, staying asleep, or trouble with waking up too early and not being able to go back to sleep more than 3 times per week, for 6 continuous months. All subjects of the study had to be between 20-25 years old and have a BMI within the normal range for their height and weight (18.5-24.5 Kg/m^). The subjects all had regular times that they went to bed and woke up and none reported having any history of sleep disorders such as sleep apnea or periodic limb

Many disorders and diseases can result from abnormal sleeping patterns that are triggered from sleep deprivation. The most common forms of sleep disorders include insomnia, sleep apnea, restless legs syndrome, and narcolepsy (NINDS 10). All of these sleep disorders begin from sleep deprivation and can be managed once they are diagnosed correctly. According to Urban, “Nervousness, dizziness, and sleeplessness may occur”, as a result of sleep deprivation (1). This proves that the slightest health changes can occur if sleep deprivation becomes a problem. According to NINDS, “The disorders and the resulting sleep deprivation interfere with work, driving, and social activities” (10). This shows that the effects of being sleep deprived can drastically change one’s everyday

Multiple studies have been used to find and utilize alternative treatments to replace pharmaceutical and prescription drugs. These treatments, known as relaxation techniques, are used especially for disorders such as insomnia. Insomnia, according to King (2011), is a sleep disorder in which the patient cannot fall asleep, no matter how much they try. These techniques for insomniacs mainly focus on the idea of relaxing the muscles. As the study done by Lick and Heffler (1977) generally targets this idea, another study by Woolfolk and McNulty (1983) uses a slightly different approach. This paper will compare the treatments tested in the studies of both groups of authors.

Dalai Lama once said, “Sleep is the best meditation” (Sleep Quotes). Some people, however, are unable to acquire such meditation. I originally intended to write my research paper on insomnia but after reading several articles, one article on the formation of research diagnostic criteria (RDC) for insomnia garnered my attention. Sleep, in general, is interesting due to its complexities and the way it affects people. I was struggling with getting proper rest in high school, so I sought out information in order to improve the quality of my sleep. I ended up finding more than I intended. It took decades for people to see that RDC was needed for insomnia. Creating appropriate RDC for insomnia and ways to test for it proved to be a complex process that took much time and effort.