TY  - JOUR
AU  - Sommerhoff, Amanda
AU  - Ehring, Thomas
AU  - Takano, Keisuke
PY  - 2023
DA  - 2023/7/19
TI  - Effects of Induced Mindfulness at Night on Repetitive Negative Thinking: Ecological Momentary Assessment Study
JO  - JMIR Ment Health
SP  - e44365
VL  - 10
KW  - mindfulness
KW  - repetitive negative thinking
KW  - stress
KW  - daily life
KW  - ecological momentary assessment
KW  - mobile phone
AB  - Background: Repetitive negative thinking (RNT) is a cognitive risk factor for various disorders. Although brief mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs; lasting 20-30 minutes or shorter) are effective tools to reduce RNT, the effect of a minimal (5-minute) MBI remains largely unknown. Objective: We investigated the acute changes in RNT induced by a 10-day minimal MBI (body scan before sleeping) using an ecological momentary assessment (EMA) administered during the MBI training phase. In addition, we examined longer-term effects on the postintervention and 2-month follow-up assessments for questionnaire-based RNT and psychological distress. Methods: A total of 68 participants (community sample, aged 18-55 years; n=58, 85% women) were randomly allocated to either the intervention group (n=35, 51%) or the no-training control group (n=33, 49%). Both groups completed a 10-day EMA phase of RNT, during which only the intervention group performed a daily 5-minute body scan before sleeping. Results: The intervention group showed a significantly larger reduction in questionnaire-based RNT than the control group at the follow-up assessment (for growth-curve modeling analysis [GMA], dGMA=−0.91; P<.001), but this effect was not observed during the EMA phase or at the postintervention assessment. Furthermore, the intervention group showed significantly larger decreases in stress both at the postintervention (dGMA=−0.78; P<.001) and follow-up (dGMA=−0.60; P<.001) assessments than the control group. We found no intervention effects on depressive and anxiety symptoms. Conclusions: A 5-minute body scan before sleeping reduces RNT and stress when continued for at least 10 days; however, the results suggest that this effect only appears with some time lag because no acute changes during and immediately after the intervention emerged for RNT. 
SN  - 2368-7959
UR  - https://mental.jmir.org/2023/1/e44365
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2196/44365
UR  - http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37467038
DO  - 10.2196/44365
ID  - info:doi/10.2196/44365
ER  -