Strategies for Controlling Unwanted Intrusive Thoughts and Insomnia Severity in Urban-Residing Young Adult African Americans

ABSTRACT

Introduction

Poor sleep is common in our society, particularly for African Americans, and is associated with adverse mental and physical health outcomes. Unwanted, intrusive thoughts contribute to sleep disturbances and can be engendered by living in stressful urban environments, which are disproportionately inhabited by African Americans. Studies of other populations have shown that cognitive coping strategies to manage intrusive thoughts vary in their adaptiveness.

Objective

To examine the relationship between thought control strategies and insomnia severity in urban residing young-adult African Americans.

Method

Sixty-four young adult African Americans completed a demographic questionnaire, the Thought Control Questionnaire for Insomnia-revised, and the Insomnia Severity Index.

Results

There were moderate to strong positive correlations of aggressive suppression, worry, behavioral distraction, and social avoidance with ISI scores. Poor sleepers endorsed greater use of worry and aggressive suppression than good sleepers. Results from a multiple linear regression analysis revealed that aggressive suppression, social avoidance, and behavioral distraction significantly predicted insomnia severity, and aggressive suppression was the strongest predictor in the model.

Conclusions

These results extend findings of aggressive suppression as a correlate of insomnia severity to an urban-residing young adult African American sample. Future research should identify adaptive approaches and the utility of modifying maladaptive strategies.

KEYWORDS:

• Insomnia
• African Americans
• Intrusive Thoughts
• Sleep Disturbance
• Thought Control Strategies

Acknowledgments

This research was supported by the NHLBI grant R01HL136626 to Dr. Thomas A. Mellman. There are no competing financial interests to disclose. The authors would like to acknowledge Travan Hurst, Ishaan Sandhu, Edward Bauer, and Pewu Lavela for their technical support and assistance with data management.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the NHLBI [R01HL136626-05].