Effects of Induced Mindfulness at Night on Repetitive Negative Thinking: Ecological Momentary Assessment Study

Overview

Journal JMIR Ment Health

Specialties Health Services
Psychiatry
Psychology

Date 2023 Jul 19

PMID 37467038

Authors

Amanda Sommerhoff

Thomas Ehring

Keisuke Takano

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Background: Repetitive negative thinking (RNT) is a cognitive risk factor for various disorders. Although brief mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs; lasting 20-30 minutes or shorter) are effective tools to reduce RNT, the effect of a minimal (5-minute) MBI remains largely unknown.

Objective: We investigated the acute changes in RNT induced by a 10-day minimal MBI (body scan before sleeping) using an ecological momentary assessment (EMA) administered during the MBI training phase. In addition, we examined longer-term effects on the postintervention and 2-month follow-up assessments for questionnaire-based RNT and psychological distress.

Methods: A total of 68 participants (community sample, aged 18-55 years; n=58, 85% women) were randomly allocated to either the intervention group (n=35, 51%) or the no-training control group (n=33, 49%). Both groups completed a 10-day EMA phase of RNT, during which only the intervention group performed a daily 5-minute body scan before sleeping.

Results: The intervention group showed a significantly larger reduction in questionnaire-based RNT than the control group at the follow-up assessment (for growth-curve modeling analysis [GMA], d=-0.91; P<.001), but this effect was not observed during the EMA phase or at the postintervention assessment. Furthermore, the intervention group showed significantly larger decreases in stress both at the postintervention (d=-0.78; P<.001) and follow-up (d=-0.60; P<.001) assessments than the control group. We found no intervention effects on depressive and anxiety symptoms.

Conclusions: A 5-minute body scan before sleeping reduces RNT and stress when continued for at least 10 days; however, the results suggest that this effect only appears with some time lag because no acute changes during and immediately after the intervention emerged for RNT.

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