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More Sleep Lowers Suicide Risk For Insomniacs
A new study suggests helping people with insomnia get more sleep significantly reduces the thoughts of suicide.
Specifically, researchers discovered that every one-hour increase in sleep duration was associated with a 72 percent decrease in the likelihood of moderate or high suicide risk.
The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report suicide is the 10th leading cause of death in the U.S., accounting for more than 38,000 deaths each year. More people now die of suicide than in car accidents.
Moreover, difficulty with sleep is common in American society as about 10 to 15 percent of adults have an insomnia disorder with distress or daytime impairment.
“We were surprised by the strength of the association between sleep duration and suicide risk,” said primary author Linden Oliver, M.A., clinical research coordinator for the University of Pennsylvania Behavioral Sleep Medicine Research Program.
“A 72 percent decrease in the likelihood of moderate or high suicide risk with a one-hour increase in sleep is interesting given the small sample size.”
The research abstract has been published in an online supplement of the journal SLEEP.
For the study, researchers merged data from two studies of insomnia capturing 471 individuals. Seventy-three indicated suicide risk with 55 classified as low suicide risk and 18 were classified as moderate or high risk.
Experts say that sleep loss is associated with depression, executive dysfunction and poor decision-making. However, few studies have investigated the role of short sleep duration in suicidal ideation.
“These results further highlight the importance of obtaining adequate amounts of sleep,” said Oliver.
Source: American Academy of Sleep Medicine
Prayer Can Facilitate Forgiveness
Florida State University researchers found that praying for a romantic partner or close friend can lead to more cooperative and forgiving behavior toward the partner.
Experts say the findings are the first in which the partners who are the subject of the prayers reported a positive change in the behavior of the person who prayed, said Frank D. Fincham, Ph.D., director of the Florida State University Family Institute.
“My previous research had shown that those who prayed for their partner reported more prosocial behavior toward their partner, but self-reports are subject to potential biased reporting,” Fincham said.
“This set of studies is the very first to use objective indicators to show that prayer changed actual behavior, and that this behavior was apparent to the other partner, the subject of the prayer.”
Moreover, objective observers found those who engaged in partner-focused prayer exhibited more positive behavior toward their partners compared to those who did not pray for their partner.
The paper is published in the journal Personal Relationships.
Authors report on the results of five separate studies in the paper. Each study was designed to find out whether partner-focused prayer shifted individuals toward cooperative behaviors and tendencies both over time and in the immediate aftermath of hurtful behavior.
Among the findings:
- Participants who prayed more frequently for their partner were rated as less vengeful in discussing something the partner had done to upset or annoy them;
- The partners of participants who prayed for them noticed more forgiving behavior than the partners of participants who were assigned to set aside time each day to think positive thoughts about them;
- Participants assigned to pray following a partner’s hurtful behavior were more cooperative with their partners compared to participants assigned to engage in thinking about God;
- Participants who prayed for a close relationship partner on days in which conflict occurred reported higher levels of cooperative tendencies and forgiveness than on days when conflict occurred and they did not pray.
“These findings highlight the potential benefit of using partner-focused prayer, where culturally appropriate, in clinical settings or in relationship education programs,” the researchers wrote.
Although the study was designed to evaluate relationship education and couples therapy for religious clients, researchers say the findings may also help clarify the types of interventions that might be developed for nonreligious couples.
That is, interventional techniques could increase cooperation in order to facilitate forgiveness across the board, regardless of religiosity.
For the studies, participants were undergraduate college students who indicated they were comfortable with prayer and praying for others.
Additional research is needed on older, more mature or more ethnically diverse couples to ensure that the effects of partner-focused prayer is not limited to young adult relationships, researchers said.
Until recently, social scientists have stayed away from studying religion, spirituality and especially prayer, Fincham said, despite the fact that some 5 billion people, or about 75 percent of the world’s population, profess some religious faith.
“In the United States, some 90 percent of people say that they pray at least occasionally, and prayer is a form of spiritual activity common to all the Abrahamic traditions, including Judaism, Christianity and Islam, with strong parallels in other religious traditions, such as Buddhism, Hinduism, and Shinto,” said Fincham.
“Yet we know very little about its role in romantic relationships. This is the first time that objective indicators have documented the impact of prayer in such relationships.”
Source: Florida State University
Woman praying photo by shutterstock.
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