Sick and Tired: Understanding and Managing Sleep Difficulties in ...

In week one (baseline week), participants were asked to complete a questionnaire
booklet that included measures of self-reported sleep quality (PSQI), mood (HADS) and
health related quality of life (SF-36). In week two (intervention week), participants
completed an audio delivered intervention for 10 minutes every day for seven days. In
week three (follow up week), participants were asked to stop the intervention and to
complete the same booklet of questionnaires as completed at week one. Participants
were asked to wear the actigraph throughout the day and night for the three weeks of the
study.
On completion of the questionnaires, in week three, participants were asked to return all
materials to the study team in a pre-paid envelope. If the documents were not received
within the following two weeks, a reminder call was made. Actigraphy data was
available for weeks one, two and three and the questionnaire data was available for
weeks one and three.
The Interventions
The mindfulness body scan is usually conducted for a period of 45 minutes, however as
the person is required to be inactive during the completion of the body scan, this length
of time may prove problematic for FMS patients who often report that levels of pain
increase after long periods of inactivity (as described in the results section of Chapter
Six). Therefore a 10 minute audio guided body scan and PMR intervention were
developed specifically for this study and were delivered via an MP3 player.
The mindfulness body scan
Participants were guided to focus on their breathing and to observe the air moving in
and out of their body. The audio programme then guided participants to observe any
sensations in their body and to become aware of any thoughts they were experiencing
without interpreting them. If no sensations were present, participants were asked to
acknowledge this.
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