P74: The Role of Emotion Dysregulation and Anxiety Sensitivity in Sleep Disturbance in Students

In recent years, emotion dysregulation and anxiety sensitivity have been introduced of the most effective factors in sleep disturbance. The purpose of this study was to examine emotion dysregulation and anxiety sensitivity as potential contributor to sleep problems in students. The statistical population of this research consisted of all the Bu-Ali Sina University’s students in the academic year 2013-2014 (1392-1393s.c). The sample of the research was 300 students, consisted of 145 female and 155 male students who were selected through multistage cluster-random sampling. The study group answered the anxiety sensitivity scale (ASI-R), difficulties in emotion regulation scale (DERS Gratz and Roemer, 2004) and Pittsburg sleep quality index (PSQI). The results showed that anxiety sensitivity is significantly able to anticipate sleep disturbance (P<0.002). Furthermore, from components of emotion dysregulation, only limited access to emotion regulation strategies (STRATEGIES), impulse control difficulties (IMPULSE) and lack of emotional awareness (AWARENESS) are significantly able to anticipate sleep disturbance (P<0.04). In general, these findings show that emotion dysregulation and anxiety sensitivity play a major role in causing sleep disturbance. Therefore, the present findings suggest that psychotherapists should consider the role of emotion dysregulation and anxiety sensitivity during psychotherapy with sleep disturbances and to advisesome strategies to resolve these dysfunctional processes.