Targeting Worry to Improve Sleep

September 12, 2022 updated by: Brown University

Targeting Worry to Improve Sleep Using App-Based Mindfulness Training

The purpose of this study is to test an app-based mindfulness training program for worry to see if it can help individuals decrease worry and improve sleep.

Study Overview

Status

Status

Indicates the current recruitment status or the expanded access status.
Completed

Conditions

Conditions

The disease, disorder, syndrome, illness, or injury that is being studied. On ClinicalTrials.gov, conditions may also include other health-related issues, such as lifespan, quality of life, and health risks.

Intervention / Treatment

Intervention / Treatment

A process or action that is the focus of a clinical study. Interventions include drugs, medical devices, procedures, vaccines, and other products that are either investigational or already available. Interventions can also include noninvasive approaches, such as education or modifying diet and exercise.

Detailed Description

In this study, 80 individuals with worry interfering with sleep will be randomized to receive Unwinding Anxiety or to Treatment as Usual (50/50 chance). The active intervention period will last 2 months, with an optional 2-month follow-up period in which the intervention remains available. Changes in mindfulness, emotional reactivity, cognition and sleep behavior at specified time points will be measured. The primary engagement targets will be non-reactivity and worry. The primary behavioral outcome target will be sleep.

Study Type

Study Type

Describes the nature of a clinical study. Study types include interventional studies (also called clinical trials), observational studies (including patient registries), and expanded access.
Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

Enrollment

The number of participants in a clinical study. The "anticipated" enrollment is the target number of participants that the researchers need for the study.
80

Phase

Phase

The stage of a clinical trial studying a drug or biological product, based on definitions developed by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The phase is based on the study's objective, the number of participants, and other characteristics. There are five phases: Early Phase 1 (formerly listed as Phase 0), Phase 1, Phase 2, Phase 3, and Phase 4. Not Applicable is used to describe trials without FDA-defined phases, including trials of devices or behavioral interventions.
  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

  • United States
    • Rhode Island
      • Providence, Rhode Island, United States, 02903
        • Brown University

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

The key requirements that people who want to participate in a clinical study must meet or the characteristics they must have. Eligibility criteria consist of both inclusion criteria (which are required for a person to participate in the study) and exclusion criteria (which prevent a person from participating). Types of eligibility criteria include whether a study accepts healthy volunteers, has age or age group requirements, or is limited by sex.

Ages Eligible for Study

18 years and older (Adult, Older Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Genders Eligible for Study

All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Score > 40 on the Penn State Worry Questionnaire (PSWQ)
  • Score ≥ to 40% on Worry Interfering with Sleep Scale (WISS)
  • Owns a smartphone
  • Willing to wear a sleep tracker for at least 1 week

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Any usage of psychotropic medication: not on a stable dosage 6+ weeks
  • Medical disorder of the severity that would interfere with ability to attend visits and complete study milestones
  • Use of benzodiazepine or hypnotic sleep aid on as needed (i.e. prn)
  • Known sleep disorder
  • Psychotic disorder
  • Post-traumatic Stress Disorder
  • Severe depression (Score > 3 on PHQ-2)
  • Current shift work employment
  • BMI > 35
  • Evening caffeine use
  • Pregnant women

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Treatment
  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
  • Masking: Single

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm

Participant Group / Arm

A group or subgroup of participants in a clinical trial that receives a specific intervention/treatment, or no intervention, according to the trial's protocol.
Intervention / Treatment

Intervention / Treatment

A process or action that is the focus of a clinical study. Interventions include drugs, medical devices, procedures, vaccines, and other products that are either investigational or already available. Interventions can also include noninvasive approaches, such as education or modifying diet and exercise.
Experimental: TAU + App-Delivered Mindfulness Training (MT)
The Unwinding Anxiety program is delivered via a smartphone-based platform, which includes a progression through 30+ daily modules of brief didactic and experience-based mindfulness training (videos and animations), app-triggered check-ins to encourage engagement, and user-initiated guided mindfulness exercises to help disrupt worry cycles in the moment.
Behavioral: App-Delivered Mindfulness Training (MT)
Unwinding Anxiety is an app-delivered mindfulness training program which includes a progression through 30+ daily modules. Each module's training is delivered via short video tutorials and animations (~10 min/day). Each training builds on the previous one; modules are 'locked' so that they can only be viewed at a pace of 1/day (previous modules can be reviewed at any time). A built-in self-assessment is taken after every seven modules to ensure key concepts are learned before moving on with automated suggestions on which modules to repeat based on the self-assessment results. User-initiated guided practices range from short exercises (30 seconds) to manage anxiety the moment it arises to formal guided meditations (up to 15 minutes), and can be accessed at any time
Other: Treatment as Usual (TAU)
Individuals in the TAU group will complete the assessments without an intervention. (Note: participants will be transitioned to the Unwinding Anxiety program following the 2-month wait list control period)
Behavioral: App-Delivered Mindfulness Training (MT)
Unwinding Anxiety is an app-delivered mindfulness training program which includes a progression through 30+ daily modules. Each module's training is delivered via short video tutorials and animations (~10 min/day). Each training builds on the previous one; modules are 'locked' so that they can only be viewed at a pace of 1/day (previous modules can be reviewed at any time). A built-in self-assessment is taken after every seven modules to ensure key concepts are learned before moving on with automated suggestions on which modules to repeat based on the self-assessment results. User-initiated guided practices range from short exercises (30 seconds) to manage anxiety the moment it arises to formal guided meditations (up to 15 minutes), and can be accessed at any time

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Primary Outcome Measures

In a clinical study's protocol, the planned outcome measure that is the most important for evaluating the effect of an intervention/treatment. Most clinical studies have one primary outcome measure, but some have more than one.
Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Change in Worry-related Sleep Disturbances
Time Frame: Baseline, 2 months
5 questions from the 29-item Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System (PROMIS-29) pertaining to anxiety and sleep will be used to assess worry-related sleep disturbances over the past 7 days. These questions are on a 5-point Likert scale where 1 is "Not at all" and 5 is "Very much". Scores can range from 5 to 25 and higher scores indicate a worse outcome.
Baseline, 2 months

Secondary Outcome Measures

Secondary Outcome Measures

In a clinical study's protocol, a planned outcome measure that is not as important as the primary outcome measure for evaluating the effect of an intervention but is still of interest. Most clinical studies have more than one secondary outcome measure.
Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Change in Worry
Time Frame: Baseline, 2 months
Penn State Worry Questionnaire (PSWQ) will be used to assess worry. The PSWQ is a 16-item questionnaire that uses a 5-point Likert scale where 1 is "Not at all typical of me" and 5 is "Very typical of me". Scores can range from 16 to 80 and higher scores indicate a worse outcome
Baseline, 2 months
Change in Total Sleep Time (TST)
Time Frame: Baseline, 2 months
A Fitbit will be used to assess sleep trends over a 1 week period
Baseline, 2 months
Changes in Non-reactivity
Time Frame: Baseline, 2 months
Non-reactivity subscale from the 15-item Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire (FFMQ) will be used to measure changes in emotional reactivity. This subscale is based on responses to 3 questions measured on a 5-point Likert scale where 1 is "Never or rarely" and 5 is "Very often or always true". Scores can range from 3 to 15 and higher scores indicate a better outcome.
Baseline, 2 months

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

Sponsor

The organization or person who initiates the study and who has authority and control over the study.
Brown University

Collaborators

Collaborators

An organization other than the sponsor that provides support for a clinical study. This support may include activities related to funding, design, implementation, data analysis, or reporting.
National Institute on Aging (NIA)

Investigators

Investigators

A researcher involved in a clinical study. Related terms include site principal investigator, site sub-investigator, study chair, study director, and study principal investigator.
  • Principal Investigator: Judson Brewer, MD, PhD, Brown University

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

General Publications

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start (Actual)

Study Start

The actual date on which the first participant was enrolled in a clinical study. The "anticipated" study start date is the date that the researchers think will be the study start date.
July 25, 2019

Primary Completion (Actual)

Primary Completion

The date on which the last participant in a clinical study was examined or received an intervention to collect final data for the primary outcome measure. Whether the clinical study ended according to the protocol or was terminated does not affect this date. For clinical studies with more than one primary outcome measure with different completion dates, this term refers to the date on which data collection is completed for all the primary outcome measures. The "anticipated" primary completion date is the date that the researchers think will be the primary completion date for the study.
February 26, 2020

Study Completion (Actual)

Study Completion

The date on which the last participant in a clinical study was examined or received an intervention/treatment to collect final data for the primary outcome measures, secondary outcome measures, and adverse events (that is, the last participant's last visit). The "anticipated" study completion date is the date that the researchers think will be the study completion date.
February 26, 2020

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

First Submitted

The date on which the study sponsor or investigator first submitted a study record to ClinicalTrials.gov. There is typically a delay of a few days between the first submitted date and the record's availability on ClinicalTrials.gov (the first posted date).
September 24, 2018

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

The date on which the study sponsor or investigator first submits a study record that is consistent with National Library of Medicine (NLM) quality control (QC) review criteria. The sponsor or investigator may need to revise and submit a study record one or more times before NLM's QC review criteria are met. It is the responsibility of the sponsor or investigator to ensure that the study record is consistent with the NLM QC review criteria.
September 24, 2018

First Posted (Actual)

First Posted

The date on which the study record was first available on ClinicalTrials.gov after National Library of Medicine (NLM) quality control (QC) review has concluded. There is typically a delay of a few days between the date the study sponsor or investigator submitted the study record and the first posted date.
September 25, 2018

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

Last Update Posted

The most recent date on which changes to a study record were made available on ClinicalTrials.gov. There may be a delay between when the changes were submitted to ClinicalTrials.gov by the study's sponsor or investigator (the last update submitted date) and the last update posted date.
October 10, 2022

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

The most recent date on which the study sponsor or investigator submitted changes to a study record that are consistent with National Library of Medicine (NLM) quality control (QC) review criteria. It is the responsibility of the sponsor or investigator to ensure that the study record is consistent with the NLM QC review criteria.
September 12, 2022

Last Verified

Last Verified

The most recent date on which the study sponsor or investigator confirmed the information about a clinical study on ClinicalTrials.gov as accurate and current. If a study with a recruitment status of recruiting; not yet recruiting; or active, not recruiting has not been confirmed within the past 2 years, the study's recruitment status is shown as unknown.
September 1, 2022

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

Other Study ID Numbers

Identifiers or ID numbers other than the NCT number that are assigned to a clinical study by the study's sponsor, funders, or others. These numbers may include unique identifiers from other trial registries and National Institutes of Health grant numbers.
  • R21AG062004 (U.S. NIH Grant/Contract)

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

NO

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

No

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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