A comparison of progressive relaxation and autogenic training as treatments for insomnia

Evaluated 2 relaxation techniques, progressive relaxation and autogenic training, as treatments for insomnia. No-treatment, a baseline control group, and a self-relaxation group designed to control for nonspecific therapeutic elements were employed. Ss were 30 adult insomniacs who had chronic and severe difficulties in falling asleep. As indicated by global measures of improvement and by reduction in time to fall asleep, progressive relaxation and autogenic training were equally effective as treatments and superior to both control groups. At a 6-mo follow-up, treatment gains had been maintained in time to fall asleep but not in self-reported global improvement, while control Ss showed no spontaneous improvement on either of the measures. (15 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved).