 Better Sleep Could Help Those Overwhelmed By Negative Thoughts 
 
 by Chuck Bednar 
 
 Chuck Bednar for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online 
 
 Those who go to bed extremely late at night and sleep for shorter periods of time are more likely to feel more consumed by worry, researchers from Binghamton University report in this month’s edition of the journal Cognitive Therapy and Research. Binghamton Anxiety Clinic Director Meredith Coles, and her colleagues recruited 100 young adults to complete a battery of questionnaires and two computerized tasks designed to measure how much the students worry, contemplate or obsess about something, the three measures used to gauge repetitive negative thinking. Those participants were also asked if they were more habitual morning or evening types, and if they preferred to maintain regular hours or to have a sleep-wake schedule that is more skewed towards later in the day. The study, led by Binghamton Anxiety Clinic Director Meredith Coles and graduate student Jacob Nota, found that people who sleep for shorter periods of time and go to bed very late at night are often overwhelmed with more negative thoughts than those who keep more regular sleeping hours. However, we are not aware of any studies examining the relation between RNT and the timing of sleep.” 
 
 Their work revealed that “shorter sleep duration was cross-sectionally associated with more rumination and delayed sleep timing was associated with more obsessive-compulsive symptoms,” and that “individuals who endorsed a preference for later sleep and activity times also reported more RNT.” The findings, the study authors reported, “suggest that RNT may be uniquely related to both sleep duration and timing.” 
 
 According to the researchers, people are said to practice repetitive negative thinking when they have troublesome pessimistic thoughts which tend to repeat in their heads. These individuals feel as though they cannot control these thoughts, tend to be excessively concerned about the future and delve too much into the past. These types of thoughts are said to be typical of patients suffering from generalized anxiety disorder, major depressive disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, obsessive compulsive disorder, and social anxiety disorder, the researchers said. Previous research has linked sleep problems with such repetitive negative thoughts, especially in cases where someone does not get enough shut eye, and Nota and Coles set out to replicate these studies. “Making sure that sleep is obtained during the right time of day may be an inexpensive and easily disseminable intervention for individuals who are bothered by intrusive thoughts,” Nota said in a statement. The research also suggests that sleep disruption may be linked to the development of repetitive negative thinking. The study authors suggest that people who are at risk of developing a disorder characterized by these types of intrusive thoughts could benefit from making sure that they are getting enough slumber every night . This study is part of a line of research examining the relations between sleep behavior and mental health. "If further findings support the relation between sleep timing and repetitive negative thinking, this could one day lead to a new avenue for treatment of individuals with internalizing disorders," added Coles. “Studying the relation between reductions in sleep duration and psychopathology has already demonstrated that focusing on sleep in the clinic also leads to reductions in symptoms of psychopathology.” 
 
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– Those who feel stressed and anxious all the time might want to try one simple remedy before others: Go to bed earlier. It's not just a matter of getting a good night's sleep, however. Researchers at Binghamton University say that when you go to sleep matters when it comes to fending off "repetitive negative thinking," according to a post at Eureka Alert. While they don't specify bedtimes, the researchers say that people who are night owls and thus wake later in the day tend to obsess about their problems more than people who keep more regular sleeping hours, reports Red Orbit. "Making sure that sleep is obtained during the right time of day may be an inexpensive and easily disseminable intervention for individuals who are bothered by intrusive thoughts," says one of the researchers for the study published in Cognitive Therapy and Research. The scientists can't say exactly why this is the case, but it might have something to do with the body's natural rhythms, explains a post at Yahoo Health. As the researcher explains, the brain might be better suited to handle "high-level cognitive processes, like the ability to inhibit thoughts and images" in the morning. (Another recent study reaffirms that about eight hours of sleep is optimal.)