An examination of social rhythms in a clinical insomnia population and good sleeper comparison group

Insomnia had generally been conceptualized as a nighttime disorder, while the daytime experience of insomnia has been largely ignored. However, there are several lines of research suggesting daytime experiences as well as daytime behaviours are equally important. For example, daily behavioural routines commonly referred to as social rhythms (e.g., exercise, attendance of school or work, recreation, engagement in social activities) have been identified as potential zeitgebers (i.e., time cues that help to regulate the biological clock). Previous research has shown that regulating behavioural zeitgebers may have promising benefits for sleep. As such, this study examined the daytime activities in a clinical insomnia population and a good sleeper comparison group. Participants (N = 69) prospectively monitored their sleep and daily activities for a two-week period, while wearing a wrist actiwatch. Those with insomnia appear to engage in activities characterized by significantly less regularity than good sleepers. However, those with insomnia were found to engage in similar levels of daily activities compared to good sleepers. Findings from this study highlight the relative importance of daytime activities on this supposed nighttime process. Accordingly, future research would benefit from testing treatment components that focus on regulating daytime activities, which would likely improve treatment outcomes.

An examination of social rhythms in a clinical insomnia population and good sleeper comparison group

Insomnia had generally been conceptualized as a nighttime disorder, while the daytime experience of insomnia has been largely ignored. However, there are several lines of research suggesting daytime experiences as well as daytime behaviours are equally important. For example, daily behavioural routines commonly referred to as social rhythms (e.g., exercise, attendance of school or work, recreation, engagement in social activities) have been identified as potential zeitgebers (i.e., time cues that help to regulate the biological clock). Previous research has shown that regulating behavioural zeitgebers may have promising benefits for sleep. As such, this study examined the daytime activities in a clinical insomnia population and a good sleeper comparison group. Participants (N = 69) prospectively monitored their sleep and daily activities for a two-week period, while wearing a wrist actiwatch. Those with insomnia appear to engage in activities characterized by significantly less regularity than good sleepers. However, those with insomnia were found to engage in similar levels of daily activities compared to good sleepers. Findings from this study highlight the relative importance of daytime activities on this supposed nighttime process. Accordingly, future research would benefit from testing treatment components that focus on regulating daytime activities, which would likely improve treatment outcomes.

In the Aftermath of Upheaval

This chapter provides recent historical background for the book: a brief recounting of the onset of the pandemic and its medical and social consequences. It describes in detail some of the losses due to Covid-19, including the loss of sense of safety and health; loss of income and employment; and, too often, the loss of loved ones. The lockdown disrupted social rhythms, a disorienting and anxiety-generating experience for many. With social distancing comes the potential loss of social supports, a risk factor for psychopathology. Excessive social media use is another related psychological risk. Part of the problem for people lies in gauging: how much upset is normal and appropriate in an upsetting time, and how much is excessive and symptomatic? In this destructive context, we anticipate, and are already seeing, a wave of psychiatric disorders following the surge(s) of the virus.

Social rhythms measured via social media use for predicting psychiatric symptoms

Social rhythms have been considered as relevant to mood disorders, but detailed analysis of social rhythms has been limited. Hence, we aim to assess social rhythms via social media use and predict users' psychiatric symptoms through their social rhythms. A two-wave survey was conducted in the Pigg Party, a popular Japanese avatar application. First and second waves of data were collected from 3504 and 658 Pigg Party users, respectively. The time stamps of their communication were sampled. Furthermore, the participants answered the General Health Questionnaire and perceived emotional support in the Pigg Party. The results indicated that social rhythms of users with many social supports were stable in a 24-h cycle. However, the rhythms of users with few social supports were disrupted. To predict psychiatric symptoms via social rhythms in the second-wave data, the first-wave data were used for training. We determined that fast Chirplet transformation was the optimal transformation for social rhythms, and the best accuracy scores on psychiatric symptoms and perceived emotional support in the second-wave data corresponded to 0.9231 and 0.7462, respectively. Hence, measurement of social rhythms via social media use enabled detailed understanding of emotional disturbance from the perspective of time-varying frequencies.

Afterword: Memory worlds in times of Corona

This afterword addresses the complex temporal and global dynamics of the coronavirus pandemic. After considering some of the new social rhythms that have emerged in the wake of Covid-19 around the world, it turns to the role of collective memory before, during and after corona. The aim is to provide a basic grid for how the Covid-19 pandemic could be addressed using memory studies expertise and concepts such as premediation, memorability, memory (ab)use, national memory, colonial memory, racial stereotypes, the digital archive, generational memory, or Anthropocene time.

Conceptualising flexibility: Challenging representations of time and society in the energy sector*

There is broad agreement that the need to decarbonise and make better use of renewable and more intermittent sources of power will require increased flexibility in energy systems. However, organisations involved in the energy sector work with very different interpretations of what this might involve. In describing how the notion of flexibility is reified, commodified, and operationalised in sometimes disparate and sometimes connected ways, we show that matters of time and timing are routinely abstracted from the social practices and forms of provision on which the rhythms of supply and demand depend. We argue that these forms of abstraction have the ironic effect of stabilising interpretations of need and demand, and of limiting rather than enabling the emergence of new practices and patterns of demand alongside, and as part of, a radically decarbonised energy system. One way out of this impasse is to conceptualise flexibility as an emergent outcome of the sequencing and synchronisation of social practices. To do so requires a more integrated and historical account of how supply and demand constitute each other and how both are implicated in the temporal organisation of everyday life. It follows that efforts to promote flexibility in the energy sector need to look beyond systems of provision, price, technology, and demand-side management narrowly defined, and instead focus on the social rhythms and the timing of what people do.