THOUGHTS DURING AWAKE TIMES IN OLDER GOOD AND POOR SLEEPERS - THE SELF-STATEMENT TEST-60+

In a previous investigation we showed that thoughts experienced during periods of nocturnal wakefulness contribute to understanding the inso mnia complaint We also demonstrated the problems with open-ended thoug ht listings, such as low thought frequencies, large standard deviation s loss of subjects due to missing data, and difficulties with states-o f-mind (SOM) ratios, Because of these difficulties and the expertise a nd expense involved in coding thoughts, in the current study we develo ped and evaluated the Self-Statement Test:60+ (SST:60+)-a 34-item inve ntory measure of thoughts reported by older individuals while hying to fall asleep. Results on 445 individuals showed good reliability and v alidity for the measure. The findings also demonstrated that negative thoughts and the SOM ratio provide good indices of dysfunctional think ing during periods of nocturnal arousal. Positive thinking, which appe ars to be a strategy to combat negative thoughts, may serve to buffer the impact of negatives.