Controlled investigation of the effects of progressive and hypnotic relaxation on insomnia

37 female college students with insomnia were matched on latency of sleep onset and assigned to 1 of 4 treatment conditions: progressive relaxation, hypnotic relaxation, and waiting-list no-treatment control. After 3 therapy sessions, progressive and hypnotic relaxation groups showed significantly greater improvement than no-treatment controls, while self-relaxation produced nearly equal improvement. Physiological changes during therapy were unrelated to outcome change. Results are discussed in terms of demand characteristics, placebo effects, and attention focusing. (16 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved).