Shelley Johns, PsyD, says some women in the study reported better sleep from practicing bedtime mindfulness.
Transcript:
Some of the women that I was working with in the study, they reported that their sleep quality had improved because they were practicing mindfulness at bedtime, and that was allowing them to feel a greater sense of peace in their life. And so that’s one of the reasons why we think that the sleep quality improved for some of these participants is because they were practicing mindfulness, which has been shown in past research to really support enhanced sleep.
Dr. Johns explains how the study helped participants set simple, clear goals based on their values and practice being present in the moment, skills many still use today.
Transcript:
We did lots of committed action goal setting with people where they would choose a value that they wanted to really focus time and attention on in the week ahead, and then we would set a S.M.A.R.T. goal — specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound — related to that value for the week ahead. Many of the women that we cared for in the study were still using the skills that they had learned to their advantage. None of these skills were really too difficult for most of these survivors. It’s like learning how to pay attention to this present moment of your life. Learning how to see what’s in front of you in this moment. Learning how to smell the smells that are available here. Learning how to touch, see and taste and hear what’s in your present moment. And it’s also clarifying and living consistently with your values, which is what all of us should be doing anyway.
