General and sleep-specific worry in insomnia

Forty-six adults with persistent moderate insomnia completed general and sleep-specific worry measures, problem-solving measure as well as sleep diaries. Dispositional and general worry predicted self-reported insomnia severity while sleep-specific pre-sleep concerns predicted sleep onset latency and overall sleep efficiency. General worry is not associated with the impairments in sleep behaviour but predicts impacts such as interference and distress associated with the insomnia. Sleep-specific concerns contribute to the severity of the sleep onset and sleep maintenance difficulties. The clinical focus on sleep-specific concerns needs to be extended to include components which improve patients’ ability to deal effectively with worry generally.