BACKGROUND Chronic insomnia affects about 6%-13% of the Canadian population.Although treatments already exist,they each have their own issues.Neurofeedback is a neuromodulation technique that specifically targets abno...BACKGROUND Chronic insomnia affects about 6%-13% of the Canadian population.Although treatments already exist,they each have their own issues.Neurofeedback is a neuromodulation technique that specifically targets abnormal brain activity and is gaining attention as a possible insomnia treatment.AIM To review the latest studies pertaining to the use of neurofeedback in the treatment of insomnia.METHODS In this non-systematic review,only experimental studies assessing the effects of neurofeedback on patients with insomnia were targeted across four bibliographic databases.RESULTS A total of 12 studies were retained.All neurofeedback studies included in this study showed a clear improvement of subjective sleep.However,data concerning objective improvement are contradictory.Most studies regarding surface and zscore neurofeedback show that neurofeedback targeting the sensorimotor rhythm in the sensorimotor cortex may help improve subjective sleep.A placebo effect seems also to be present in some studies.Several limitations were present in each study.CONCLUSION While studies concerning neurofeedback as a treatment for insomnia are encouraging,many methodological barriers remain to be resolved to prove its efficacy unequivocally.More studies using robust design parameters,as well as the replication of existing studies,are necessary to support neurofeedback as an effective treatment for insomnia.展开更多
Excessive distress and insomnia are much too common in the modern world and often lead to a myriad of detrimental effects including loss of cognitive ability and even physical ailments such as cancer. Current pharmace...Excessive distress and insomnia are much too common in the modern world and often lead to a myriad of detrimental effects including loss of cognitive ability and even physical ailments such as cancer. Current pharmaceutical treatments can be addictive, detrimental to health, and in the case of insomnia don’t produce naturalistic sleep. We present a viewpoint on a potential adjunctive treatment of distress and insomnia that harnesses specific mental imagery as a component of mind/body relaxation technique. Via our perspective on the modern nature of stress and insomnia, our theoretical perspective on how specific guided mental imagery can be used to treat these ailments, and our review on the current literature on treatment with mental imagery, we hope to stimulate further research into mental health treatment with mental imagery which has traditionally been neglected. This perspective on the pathology of insomnia and distress is founded in prevailing “dysevolution” and hyper-arousal theories. Hyper-arousal is characterized in part by a vicious cycle of chronic physiological and emotional stimulation/distress. We argue for spatially based mental imagery in the form of nighttime-sky imagery to attenuate such pathology by breaking one away from a vicious cycle of stimulation and distress and discuss neuropsychological bases for its potential treatment mechanisms which include the autonomic nervous system and a phenomenal foundation of conscious cognition.展开更多
文摘BACKGROUND Chronic insomnia affects about 6%-13% of the Canadian population.Although treatments already exist,they each have their own issues.Neurofeedback is a neuromodulation technique that specifically targets abnormal brain activity and is gaining attention as a possible insomnia treatment.AIM To review the latest studies pertaining to the use of neurofeedback in the treatment of insomnia.METHODS In this non-systematic review,only experimental studies assessing the effects of neurofeedback on patients with insomnia were targeted across four bibliographic databases.RESULTS A total of 12 studies were retained.All neurofeedback studies included in this study showed a clear improvement of subjective sleep.However,data concerning objective improvement are contradictory.Most studies regarding surface and zscore neurofeedback show that neurofeedback targeting the sensorimotor rhythm in the sensorimotor cortex may help improve subjective sleep.A placebo effect seems also to be present in some studies.Several limitations were present in each study.CONCLUSION While studies concerning neurofeedback as a treatment for insomnia are encouraging,many methodological barriers remain to be resolved to prove its efficacy unequivocally.More studies using robust design parameters,as well as the replication of existing studies,are necessary to support neurofeedback as an effective treatment for insomnia.
文摘Excessive distress and insomnia are much too common in the modern world and often lead to a myriad of detrimental effects including loss of cognitive ability and even physical ailments such as cancer. Current pharmaceutical treatments can be addictive, detrimental to health, and in the case of insomnia don’t produce naturalistic sleep. We present a viewpoint on a potential adjunctive treatment of distress and insomnia that harnesses specific mental imagery as a component of mind/body relaxation technique. Via our perspective on the modern nature of stress and insomnia, our theoretical perspective on how specific guided mental imagery can be used to treat these ailments, and our review on the current literature on treatment with mental imagery, we hope to stimulate further research into mental health treatment with mental imagery which has traditionally been neglected. This perspective on the pathology of insomnia and distress is founded in prevailing “dysevolution” and hyper-arousal theories. Hyper-arousal is characterized in part by a vicious cycle of chronic physiological and emotional stimulation/distress. We argue for spatially based mental imagery in the form of nighttime-sky imagery to attenuate such pathology by breaking one away from a vicious cycle of stimulation and distress and discuss neuropsychological bases for its potential treatment mechanisms which include the autonomic nervous system and a phenomenal foundation of conscious cognition.
