A Randomized Controlled Trial of Mindfulness Meditation for Chronic Insomnia
Jason C Ong, Rachel Manber, Zindel V. Segal, Yinglin Xia, Shauna L. Shapiro, James K. Wyatt
Sleep August 29, 2014 DOI: 10.5665/sleep.4010 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Randomized controlled trial Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Sample size | 54 |
| Population | Adults with chronic insomnia |
| Interventions | Mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) Mindfulness-based therapy for insomnia (MBTI) Self-monitoring (SM) |
| Duration | 8-week intervention, 6-month follow-up |
| Topics | Meditation |
| Keywords | Actigraphy Randomized controlled trial Mindfulness-based stress reduction Physical therapy Insomnia Polysomnography Clinical psychology |
| Citations | 338 |
| Registration | NCT00768781 |
| Key findings | Mindfulness meditation interventions (MBSR and MBTI) significantly reduced insomnia symptoms compared to self-monitoring, with MBTI showing the highest remission (50%) and response (78.6%) rates at 6-month follow-up. |
Abstract
STUDY
Objectives: To evaluate the efficacy of mindfulness meditation for the treatment of chronic insomnia.
Design: Three-arm, single-site, randomized controlled trial.
Setting: Academic medical center.
Participants: Fifty-four adults with chronic insomnia.
Interventions: Participants were randomized to either mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR), mindfulness-based therapy for insomnia (MBTI), or an eight-week self-monitoring (SM) condition.
Measurements: AND
Results: Patient-reported outcome measures were total wake time (TWT) from sleep diaries, the pre-sleep arousal scale (PSAS), measuring a prominent waking correlate of insomnia, and the Insomnia Severity Index (ISI) to determine remission and response as clinical endpoints. Objective sleep measures were derived from laboratory polysomnography and wrist actigraphy. Linear mixed models showed that those receiving a meditation-based intervention (MBSR or MBTI) had significantly greater reductions on TWT minutes (43.75 vs 1.09), PSAS (7.13 vs 0.16), and ISI (4.56 vs 0.06) from baseline-to-post compared to SM. Post hoc analyses revealed that each intervention was superior to SM on each of the patient-reported measures, but no significant differences were found when comparing MBSR to MBTI from baseline-to-post. From baseline to 6-month follow-up, MBTI had greater reductions in ISI scores than MBSR (P < 0.05), with the largest difference occurring at the 3-month follow-up. Remission and response rates in MBTI and MBSR were sustained from post-treatment through follow-up, with MBTI showing the highest rates of treatment remission (50%) and response (78.6%) at the 6-month follow-up.
Conclusions: Mindfulness meditation appears to be a viable treatment option for adults with chronic insomnia and could provide an alternative to traditional treatments for insomnia.
Trial Registration: Mindfulness-Based Approaches to Insomnia: clinicaltrials.gov, identifier: NCT00768781.