Recent Stressful Life Events and Perceived Stress as Serial Mediators of the Association between Adverse Childhood Events and Insomnia.

Insomnia is common in college students and linked to poorer mental and physical health. There is growing evidence that adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) may contribute to insomnia in adulthood. However, beyond the need for additional replication of these findings, there is a need to identify underlying mechanisms that plausibly connect the two experiences.

Heart Rate Variability Biofeedback as a Treatment for Military PTSD: A Meta-Analysis.

Introduction: Emerging research has provided tentative support for the use of heart rate variability biofeedback (HRVB) as a treatment for several psychological disorders, with meta-analyses providing compelling evidence for HRVB as a promising treatment for anxiety, depression, and PTSD. Given the prevalence of PTSD in military veterans and the comparatively lower benefit and higher attrition rate of traditional psychological treatment for PTSD relative to civilian counterparts, it is important to examine complementary and alternative treatment approaches such as HRVB in this population. Although studies of HRVB for PTSD have been conducted with military veterans, they have involved relatively small sample sizes, limiting interpretation.

The pathway from sensory processing sensitivity to physical health: Stress as a mediator.

Sensory processing sensitivity (SPS) has been proposed as an innate trait associated with differences in the processing and reactivity to internal and external stimuli. To date, there has been limited research on the association between SPS and physical health and only one study examining mediators of this relationship. The aim of this study was to examine psychological stress as a mediator of the SPS-health relationship in a predominately Hispanic sample of 923 adult undergraduates attending university between 2018 and 2020.

A Comparison of Psychological Stress and Sleep Problems in Undocumented Students, DACA Recipients, and U.S. Citizens.

Amidst the uncertainty of a shifting political landscape, our study examined stress and sleep problems experienced by both Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) undergraduates and non-DACA undocumented immigrants in an undergraduate population, in relation to students who were US citizens. We surveyed 969 students (93% Hispanic; 69% female) in 2017 or 2019 using established measures of stress, sleep quality, and insomnia. Collapsed across years, undocumented students reported significantly greater stress than citizens and DACA students, but DACA students did not differ from citizens.

Bedtime repetitive negative thinking moderates the relationship between psychological stress and insomnia.

Research suggests that psychological stress is associated with insomnia, but there is limited research on vulnerabilities that might amplify this association, particularly in college students. Based on a sample of 507 undergraduates, the current study demonstrates that the observed positive correlation between self-perceived stress and insomnia severity is moderated by the tendency to engage in repetitive negative thinking (RNT) at bedtime. Additionally, separate analyses of those who scored below/above the threshold for insomnia (non-insomniacs vs.

Stress and sleep in college students prior to and during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Within the short timeframe of the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been increasing interest in its potential impact on psychological stress and sleep. Using standardized self-report measures, we examined differences in stress and sleep by comparing responses from three independent samples of undergraduates in the United States. Samples were obtained prior to COVID-19 (Spring 2019) and at two periods during the pandemic (Spring 2020 and Summer 2020) which corresponded to an increasing impact of COVID-19 at the local level.

Sleep paralysis in college students.

We examined the prevalence of sleep paralysis (SP), its association with stress and sleep, and associated subjective experiences and beliefs. 1,115 college students from a large university in the southwestern United States. The sample was predominantly Hispanic (94%) and female (70%).

The Sleep Health Index: Correlations with standardized stress and sleep measures in a predominantly Hispanic college student population.

Objectives: The Sleep Health Index was developed to address limitations with existing sleep scales, particularly in the measurement of healthy sleep in non-clinical populations. The purpose of the current study was to examine this measure in relation to two widely-used sleep scales and two standardized stress scales.

Methods: A sample of 416 undergraduate students completed an online survey that included the Sleep Health Index, Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Inventory, Insomnia Severity Index, Perceived Stress Scale, and Index of College Students' Recent Life Events.

Stress and sleep remain significant predictors of health after controlling for negative affect.

Prior research has shown that the predictive power of a stress-health model can be improved by the addition of sleep as a predictor variable. However, negative affect (NA) may act as a confounding variable in stress-health relationships: a source of bias that potentially inflates the observed relationship between stress and health. The current study examines whether stress and sleep remain significant predictors of health after controlling for trait NA.

Optimal control of diffuser shapes for non-uniform flow.

A simplified model is used to identify the diffuser shape that maximises pressure recovery for several classes of non-uniform inflow. We find that optimal diffuser shapes strike a balance between not widening too soon, as this accentuates the non-uniform flow, and not staying narrow for too long, which is detrimental for wall drag. Three classes of non-uniform inflow are considered, with the axial velocity varying across the width of the diffuser entrance.

Short Sleep Duration is Associated with Obesity in Hispanic Manufacturing Workers.

The present study examined the relationship between obesity and sleep duration among Hispanic manufacturing workers. Two hundred and twenty eight Hispanic workers from eight manufacturing plants completed an in-person interview that included measures of demographics, health literacy, and sleep duration. Height and weight were directly assessed.

An examination of the equivalency of self-report measures obtained from crowdsourced versus undergraduate student samples.

Increasingly, researchers have begun to explore the potential of the Internet to reach beyond the traditional undergraduate sample. In the present study, we sought to compare the data obtained from a conventional undergraduate college-student sample to data collected via two online survey recruitment platforms. In order to examine whether the data sampled from the three populations were equivalent, we conducted a test of equivalency using inferential confidence intervals-an approach that differs from the more traditional null hypothesis significance testing.

Development of the Sensory Hypersensitivity Scale (SHS): a self-report tool for assessing sensitivity to sensory stimuli.

Sensory hypersensitivity is one manifestation of the central sensitization that may underlie conditions such as fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome. We conducted five studies designed to develop and validate the Sensory Hypersensitive Scale (SHS); a 25-item self-report measure of sensory hypersensitivity. The SHS assesses both general sensitivity and modality-specific sensitivity (e.

Skin Barrier Recovery is not Associated with Self-Perceived Stress.

The primary aim of the current study was to examine the association between self-perceived stress and skin-barrier recovery. From an initial sample of 410 students, 19 high-stress and 12 low-stress Hispanic women completed a behavioural survey and were assessed for recovery of skin barrier following a tape-stripping procedure. No association was found between self-perceived stress and skin barrier recovery at either the 30-min or 3.

Effect of Healing Touch on stress perception and biological correlates.

The objective of this pilot study was to investigate the effect of Healing Touch on state/trait anxiety and physiological measures of heart rate, blood pressure, muscle tension, skin conductance, and skin temperature in healthy adults. The study used a single group, repeated measures design with a nonprobability convenience sample of 30 subjects. Physiological data were collected for 10 minutes before intervention, during 30 minutes of Healing Touch treatment, and for 10 minutes posttreatment.

Expect the unexpected: ability, attitude, and responsiveness to hypnosis.

Participants' expectancies and hypnotic performance throughout the course of a standardized, individually administered hypnotic protocol were analyzed with a structural equation model that integrated underlying ability, expectancy, and hypnotic response. The model examined expectancies and ability as simultaneous predictors of hypnotic responses as well as hypnotic responses as an influence on subsequent expectancies. Results of the proposed model, which fit very well, supported each of the 4 major hypothesized effects: Expectancies showed significant stability across the course of the hypnosis protocol; expectancies influenced subsequent hypnotic responses, controlling for latent ability; hypnotic responses, in turn, affected subsequent expectancies; and a latent trait underlay hypnotic responses, controlling for expectancies.

Hypnotic susceptibility scales: are the mean scores increasing?

The Stanford Hypnotic Susceptibility Scale, Form C (SHSS:C), developed and named 37 years ago, is arguably the "gold standard" of hypnotic susceptibility scales. However, it has been the impression of several researchers that means obtained on the SHSS:C are higher now than in previous years. The authors comprehensively review studies using the SHSS:C over a 4-decade period.

Self-fulfilling prophecy and hypnotic response are not the same thing.

The authors used the "bogus-item" methodology originally used by C. Wickless and I. Kirsch (1989) to examine the effects of response expectancy manipulations on subjects' subsequently measured hypnotizability scores.