Research
The research behind the exercises
Here we unpack new studies and the classic experiments our exercises come from. For each: what they found, how much to trust it, what it means for you, and what it does NOT mean.
Show
Topics
- "If you can't sleep, get up": the 1972 rule behind modern sleep programmes — and what is left of itIn 1972 Richard Bootzin proposed four plain rules to re-teach the bed to mean sleep. Fifty years of trials kept the core and questioned the theory.#Sleep
- A fully automated online insomnia programme still helped two years later — but the gap narrowedA Norwegian trial of 1,720 adults followed a self-guided sleep programme for two years. The benefit lasted, got smaller, and many people stopped answering.#Sleep#Digital programmes
- Feeling worse while learning to meditate with an app: how common it is, and what it may meanIn two US samples of stressed adults, 10–28% reported a difficult experience they linked to meditation. Most were brief, and the cause is unclear.#Meditation#Anxiety#Digital programmes
- Mental skills training may ease athletes' competition nerves — but no method is a clear winnerA network meta-analysis of 46 small trials found that several mental skills reduced athletes' competition anxiety. Which one works best is still unclear.#Performance#Sport#Anxiety
- The alarm, not the fire: David Clark's 1986 model of panic and how well it has held upIn 1986 David Clark argued that panic grows from reading harmless body sensations as a catastrophe. It reshaped help for panic; the details are debated.#Panic#Anxiety
- The Yerkes–Dodson curve: what a 1908 mouse study really showed, and a better idea for pre-performance nervesThe famous inverted-U of stress and performance comes from a small study of mice and electric shocks. What has replaced it is less tidy and more useful.#Performance#Self-regulation#Replication
Nothing matches this filter.