Sleepless in cyberspace: A thematic analysis of online sleep recommendations for insomnia symptoms.

IF 3.4 2区医学 Q2 CLINICAL NEUROLOGY

Sleep Health Pub Date : 2025-06-05 DOI:10.1016/j.sleh.2025.04.008

Siri Jakobsson Støre, Ena Milutinovic, Frida Sjökvist Landén, Annika Norell

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

Objectives: Insomnia is the most common sleep disorder in adults. About 10% of adults meet the diagnostic criteria, and about 30% suffer from subclinical symptoms. Seeking advice online is common when having health issues. There are no previous studies on Swedish Internet forums regarding types of advice and the logic behind the recommendations given for how to handle troubled sleep. The purpose of the study was to examine which treatment methods for insomnia symptoms were recommended by forum users on the Swedish Internet forum Flashback.

Methods: A thematic analysis was conducted on 1174 posts.

Results: The analysis resulted in four themes: (1) Advice on healthcare, (2) Bedtime and sleep environment strategies, (3) Implement long-term lifestyle changes, and (4) Advice on nonprescribed, legal, or illegal drugs. Notably, a large portion of the recommendations provided emphasized the utilization of pharmacological interventions, including prescription drugs, over-the-counter medications, supplements, illegal substances, or combinations of these. This despite the fact that many advice givers attributed insomnia to psychological causes such as stress.

Conclusions: Insight into recommendations given on Internet forums is important for healthcare personnel; advice might shape patients' sleep habits as well as expectations on insomnia treatments.

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网络空间失眠：对失眠症状的在线睡眠建议的专题分析。

目的：失眠是成年人最常见的睡眠障碍。约10%的成年人符合诊断标准，约30%患有亚临床症状。在遇到健康问题时，在网上寻求建议是很常见的。关于如何处理睡眠问题的建议类型和背后的逻辑，瑞典互联网论坛上没有先前的研究。这项研究的目的是研究瑞典互联网论坛Flashback上的论坛用户推荐的治疗失眠症状的方法。方法：对1174篇帖子进行专题分析。结果：分析得出四个主题：(1)保健建议；(2)就寝时间和睡眠环境策略；(3)实施长期生活方式改变；(4)对非处方、合法或非法药物的建议。值得注意的是，提供的大部分建议强调了药理学干预措施的使用，包括处方药、非处方药、补充剂、非法物质或这些药物的组合。尽管许多建议提供者将失眠归因于压力等心理原因。结论：了解互联网论坛上给出的建议对医护人员很重要；建议可能会影响患者的睡眠习惯以及对失眠治疗的期望。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Sleep Health CLINICAL NEUROLOGY-

CiteScore

6.30

自引率

9.80%

发文量

114

审稿时长

54 days

期刊介绍： Sleep Health Journal of the National Sleep Foundation is a multidisciplinary journal that explores sleep''s role in population health and elucidates the social science perspective on sleep and health. Aligned with the National Sleep Foundation''s global authoritative, evidence-based voice for sleep health, the journal serves as the foremost publication for manuscripts that advance the sleep health of all members of society.The scope of the journal extends across diverse sleep-related fields, including anthropology, education, health services research, human development, international health, law, mental health, nursing, nutrition, psychology, public health, public policy, fatigue management, transportation, social work, and sociology. The journal welcomes original research articles, review articles, brief reports, special articles, letters to the editor, editorials, and commentaries.