COGNITIVE BEHAVIOUR TECHNIQUES FOR PRIMARY INSOMNIA. A NON-RANDOMIZED STUDY AMONG UNIVERSITY STUDENTS
Victor Moses, PhD & Prof. E. F. Adeniyi
Department of Educational Psychology & Counseling
Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria
Email: efadeniyi@yahoo.com, gstatconsulting@yahoo.com
Corresponding Author: Victor Moses, PhD
ABSTRACT
The main objective of this study is to investigate the efficacy of cognitive behavior techniques on insomnia among university students. In order to achieve this, a non-randomized design involving pretest posttest experimental/control group was used and a total sample size of twenty-four volunteered students(cognitive-behavior technique = 12, control group= 12), with a mean age of 25.3, who were identified with primary insomnia condition were purposively selected and used for the study. The intervention (stimulus control, sleep restriction, sleep hygiene education, and cognitive technique) administered lasted for a period of six weeks. The outcome measure used was the insomnia severity index, which was filled at pre and post intervention stages to assess treatment outcome. The data collected were analysed using mean and standard deviation to answer research questions while the null hypotheses were tested using one-way between group analyses of covariance. The statistical package for the social sciences (SPSS v24) was used for the analysis. After adjusting for the covariate, finding suggests a significant effect of cognitive behaviour techniques, F(1,21) = 22.416, p= .000, in reducing insomnia among university students, with cognitive behaviour techniques producing a within group average remission of about 65% when compared to 9% for the control group. The study did not find significant differential effect of cognitive behaviour techniques, F(1,9) = .106, p= .752, in reducing insomnia of male compared to female university students. Both male and female students reported 65% and 66% decrease respectively. Based on these findings, the study concludes that six weeks CBT successfully decrease primary insomnia among students. It is therefore, recommended that psychologists and counsellors should explore the benefits of cognitive behaviour techniques for insomnia to help students manage their sleep difficulty since the techniques show good level of effectiveness without significant gender bias.
