# People who go to bed late have less control over OCD symptoms



## David Baxter PhD (Jun 23, 2017)

*People who go to bed late have less control over OCD symptoms*
_Medical News Today_
22 June 2017

       A late bedtime is associated with lower perceived control of  obsessive thoughts, according to new research from Binghamton  University, State University of New York.

  Binghamton University Professor of Psychology Meredith E. Coles and  former graduate student Jessica Schubert (now at University of Michigan  Medical School) monitored twenty individuals diagnosed with OCD  and ten individuals endorsing subthreshold OCD symptoms during one week  of sleep. Participants completed sleep diaries and daily ratings of  perceived degree of control over obsessive thoughts and ritualized  behaviors. The researchers found that previous night's bedtime  significantly predicted participants' perceived ability to control their  obsessive thoughts and compulsive behavior on the subsequent day.

  "We're really interested in how this kind of unusual timing of sleep  might affect cognitive functioning," said Schubert. "One possibility is  impulse control. It might be that something about shifting the timing of  your sleep might reduce your ability to control your thoughts and your  behaviors, so it might make it more likely that you're going to have a  hard time dismissing intrusive thoughts characteristic of obsessions,  and it might make it more difficult for you to refrain from compulsive  behaviors that are designed to reduce the anxiety caused by obsessive thoughts."

  On average participants in the study went to bed around 12:30 at  night. Patients who met criteria for delayed sleep phase disorder, about  40% of the sample, went to bed around 3 a.m.

  "I always knew you were supposed to get eight hours of sleep, but I  was never told it matters when you do it," said Coles. "It's been  striking to me that this difference seems to be very specific to the  circadian component of when you sleep. That we find that there are  specific negative consequences of sleeping at the wrong times, that's  something to educate the public about."

  The researchers are interested in exploring this phenomenon further.  Coles plans on collecting pilot data using lightboxes to shift people's  bedtimes. "It's one of our first efforts to actually shift their  bedtimes and see if it reduces their OCD symptoms, and if this improves  their ability to resist those intrusive thoughts and not develop  compulsions in response to them."

  The paper, _Later bedtime is associated with decrements in perceived  control of obsessions and compulsions_, was presented at the 31st Annual  Meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies.

*Related article:* 1128 Later Bedtime is Associated with Decrements in Perceived Control of Obsessions and Compulsions, JR Schubert, ME Coles, J Arnedt, _SLEEP_, doi: 10.1093/sleepj/zsx050.1127, published 28 April 2017.


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