Don't argue with yourself when you want to fall asleep: The links between impulsivity, self-attacking, and insomnia

Abstract

The present study explored how people cope with feelings of shame in the wake of impulsive behavior and how their motivational stances toward shame interfere with sleep. A sample of 290 university students completed the UPPS Impulsive Behavior Scale, the Compass of Shame Scale, the Bedtime Counterfactual Processing Questionnaire, and the Insomnia Severity Index. The Compass of Shame Scale assesses the use of four distinct strategies of shame regulation: self-attacking, attacking somebody else, withdrawal, and avoidance. Path analyses revealed that the effect of impulsive urgency on counterfactual processing at bedtime is partly mediated by the use of self-attacking in response to feelings of shame. In accord with previous findings on regret-related insomnia in elderly people (Schmidt, Renaud, & Van der Linden, submitted), these results suggest that self-attacking is particularly pernicious to the process of falling asleep because this motivational stance leads to a rise of counterfactual thoughts and emotions at bedtime