Paradoxical intention for insomnia disorder: A randomized, controlled trial with focus on mechanisms of change

Paradoxical intention (PI) means, in short, that you ask people to do one thing and hope that it will have the opposite effect. This treatment study aims to test if paradoxical intention for insomnia can improve sleep, by instructing people to lie awake in bed instead of trying to fall sleep. The method is not new but it fell into oblivion when cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia began to be implemented. A thorough review of research on PI as an insomnia treatment showed that the method was more effective than previously thought, but that there are gaps in the knowledge about who the treatment works for and what factors cause improvements. We intend to answer this in the study.

Publications

Jansson-Fröjmark, M., Sandlund, C., & Norell-Clarke, A. (2023). Paradoxic intention as an adjunct treatment to CBT-I.Sleep Medicine Clinics, 18(1). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsmc.2022.10.001

Jansson-Fröjmark, M., Alfonsson, S., Bohman, B., Rozental, A, & Norell-Clarke, A(2021). Paradoxical intention for insomnia: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Journal of Sleep Research, 31(2). https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/jsr.13464