The development of insomnia within the first year: A focus on worry

Objectives: The aim of this investigation was to study the relationships between sleep‐related worry and subjective sleep perception as a function of stage of chronicity. Design: A cross‐sectional study consisting of 136 individuals with a short history of insomnia was used. Methods: The 136 participants were grouped to form two different levels of chronicity based on their duration of insomnia: short (3–7 months; n = 69) and long (>7–12 months; n = 67). Two domains of sleep‐related worry (sleeplessness and health) were used as predictors of subjective sleep perception (sleep onset latency, time awake after sleep onset, and total sleep time). Results: The association between worry for sleeplessness and subjective sleep perception was significantly different across the stages of chronicity. In the group with a short duration of insomnia, worry for sleeplessness was not related to subjective sleep perception. Worry for sleeplessness was however a significant predictor of subjective sleep perception in the group with a long duration of insomnia (unique variance: 33% on sleep onset latency, 19% on time awake after sleep onset, and 13% on total sleep time). Even if marked differences were observed between the two groups, worry for health was not significantly different across stages of chronicity on subjective sleep perception. Conclusions: This suggests that the role of sleep‐related worry to subjective sleep perception may increase over time. Given that worry was a mechanism with an increasingly stronger impact over time, this supports the idea that worry is a potential mechanism related to the development of insomnia.