Psychological Models of Insomnia Disorder: A Recent Review

Abstract

Insomnia disorder, causing personal and societal costs, is a psychiatric disorder characterized by difficulties in falling asleep, maintaining sleep, and waking up earlier than planned in the morning. Approximately 10% of the population suffers from insomnia. Previous studies have shown that insomnia disorder reduces the overall quality of life, decreases daily functionality, leads to impairments in some psychomotor and cognitive skills, reduces job performance, causes more absenteeism at work, and increases treatment costs for disorders other than insomnia. Moreover, insomnia is a risk factor for different psychiatric disorders. Research conducted over the last 50 years has led to the emergence of various models to explain insomnia disorder from psychological viewpoints. These psychological models can be listed as the “stimulus control model”, “Spielman model”, “microanalytic model”, “neurocognitive model”, “high-risk model of threat perception”, “sleep interfering-sleep interpreting processes model”, “psychobiological inhibition model”, “cognitive model”, “evolutionary-emotional model”, and “fear simulation model”. The aim of this review article is to present an up-to-date picture of the psychological models of insomnia by outlining the basic assumptions.

Keywords

• insomnia
• psychology
• model
• hyperarousal
• sleep