An EEG approach to aspects of insomnia

The research programme was initiated by a study of possible non-drug "aids" to insomnia. Using a group of self-reported, sleep-onset insomniacs, the efficacies of cycloid vibration, Horlicks and cocoa (placebo condition) were assessed by all-night EEG recordings. None of these "aids" were found to have significant effects upon either the quality or quantity of sleep. However, two interesting observations of this study were: (1) the unreliability of subjective reports of insomnia—the insomniacs, in general, tended to overestimate their sleep onset times; (2) the frequent use of Aspirin by the self-reported insomniacs to relieve their sleeping difficulties. These observations served as the bases for further investigation. [Continues.