SHADES Mechanistic Trial (SHADES)

August 4, 2026 updated by: Jesse Stewart, Indiana University

Strengthening Hearts by Addressing DisruptEd Sleep (SHADES) Mechanistic Trial

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is common, deadly, and costly, and adults with insomnia represent a large group of people at elevated risk of developing CVD in the future. This clinical trial will determine if our updated insomnia treatment, called the SHADES intervention, improves CVD factors thought to explain how insomnia promotes CVD and if these improvements are due to positive changes in sleep factors. A total of 200 primary care patients with insomnia and CVD risk factors will be randomized to 6 months of the SHADES intervention (internet, telephonic, and/or face-to-face cognitive-behavioral therapy for insomnia) or the active control condition (sleep education/hygiene, symptom monitoring, and primary care for insomnia). Before and after treatment, participants will complete measurements of the CVD factors (systemic inflammation, autonomic dysfunction, metabolic dysregulation, proinflammatory gene expression) and the sleep factors (insomnia symptoms, sleep onset latency, wake after sleep onset, sleep efficiency). Researchers will test whether the SHADES intervention produces greater improvements in the CVD factors than the active control condition.

Study Overview

Status

Status

Indicates the current recruitment status or the expanded access status.
Enrolling by invitation

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

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) affects nearly 1 in 2 U.S. adults, is the #1 killer of men and women, burdens disadvantaged groups, and has costs greater than any other condition. While these statistics highlight the importance of CVD prevention, current approaches have only partial effectiveness. This has created a need to identify new CVD prevention targets, their underlying mechanisms, and effective interventions. Insomnia, its candidate mechanisms, and insomnia treatment are strong candidates in this regard. Thirty years of evidence indicates that insomnia is an independent, clinically important, robust, and potentially causal and modifiable risk factor for CVD. In addition, biologically plausible mechanisms that could explain how insomnia promotes the development of CVD have been proposed, with the most strongly supported being systemic inflammation, autonomic dysfunction, and metabolic dysregulation. Because insomnia now receives limited attention in settings where CVD prevention occurs (e.g., primary care), there is a large cohort of patients with an unaddressed CVD risk factor (insomnia). This status quo and the strong state of the insomnia-to-CVD science create the current need for a well-powered, mechanistic trial to elucidate biological mechanisms underlying the insomnia-to-CVD relationship and the mechanisms of action of cognitive-behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I), both of which are presently unknown. Therefore, we are conducting a mechanistic trial of 200 primary care patients (45% minority) with insomnia and CVD risk factors but no clinical CVD. Participants will be randomized to 6 months of the SHADES (Strengthening Hearts by Addressing DisruptEd Sleep) intervention or the active control condition. The SHADES intervention is our modernized collaborative care intervention consisting of well-established internet, telephonic, and/or face-to-face CBT-I. The active control condition consists of sleep education/hygiene, symptom monitoring, and primary care for insomnia. Our proposal has four aims - Aim 1: determine the effect of the SHADES intervention on our primary CVD mechanism of high-sensitivity CRP; Aim 2: determine the effect of the SHADES intervention on our secondary CVD mechanisms of systemic inflammation, autonomic dysfunction, and metabolic dysregulation; Aim 3: examine if 6-month improvements in upstream sleep mechanisms mediate the SHADES intervention effect on 6-month improvements in downstream CVD mechanisms; Exploratory Aim: explore the effect of the SHADES intervention on proinflammatory gene expression. This trial could generate the critical support for the mechanistic rationale and conceptual framework needed to justify the next-step phase III, multi-site clinical trial to determine the SHADES Intervention effect on CVD clinical outcomes, endpoints of great public health relevance, morbidity, and cost.

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 (Estimated)

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.
200

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 Contact

Study Contact

The name and contact information for the person who can answer enrollment questions for a clinical study. Each location where the study is being conducted may also have a specific contact, who may be better able to answer those questions.
  • Name: Jesse C Stewart, Ph.D.
  • Phone Number: 317-274-6761
  • Email: jstew@iupui.edu

Study Contact Backup

Study Locations

  • United States
    • Indiana
      • Indianapolis, Indiana, United States, 46202
        • Department of Psychology, School of Science, Indiana University Indianapolis

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

  • Adult
  • Older Adult

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Description

Inclusion criteria:

  1. Current primary care patient in Eskenazi Health
  2. Age ≥40 years
  3. Current insomnia disorder: During screening, ResNet assistants will administer the Insomnia Severity Index (ISI), a validated screener in primary care. Patients who have ISI scores ≥10 (97% sensitivity, 64% specificity) and remain eligible after ResNet screening will be called by our Insomnia Clinical Specialist, who will administer the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-5 Sleep Disorders to confirm insomnia disorder.
  4. Elevated CVD risk: Elevated CVD risk will be defined as ≥2 (if 40-59 years) or ≥1 (if 60+ years) of the following risk factors in the Eskenazi Health EHR in the past 5 years: hypertension, hypercholesterolemia, diabetes, or smoking.

Exclusion criteria are:

  1. History of clinical CVD: a self-reported CVD diagnosis during screening or any of the following in the patient's electronic health record before enrollment: myocardial infarction, unstable angina, coronary artery disease, cerebrovascular disease, heart failure, percutaneous coronary intervention, or coronary artery bypass graft
  2. Sleep disorder diagnosis other than insomnia (e.g., sleep apnea)
  3. Continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) use or a STOP-BANG Questionnaire score ≥5, which is indicative of high probability of sleep apnea
  4. A schedule requiring a usual bedtime earlier than 8:00pm or later than 2:00am or arising time earlier than 4:00am or later than 10:00am
  5. Major inflammatory conditions (HIV/AIDS, chronic kidney disease, systemic inflammatory disease, or active cancer)
  6. Current pregnancy
  7. Severe cognitive impairment (≥3 errors on a validated 6-item cognitive screen)
  8. History of bipolar disorder or psychosis
  9. Acute risk of suicide

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: Prevention
  • 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: SHADES Intervention
The SHADES intervention is a 6-month, modernized, collaborative care intervention in which a multidisciplinary team delivers established insomnia treatments consistent with patient preference. It uses a stepped, flexible, treat-to-target approach that harnesses technology to maximize access to and convenience of effective treatments and to minimize personnel, training, and space requirements. Our Intervention Team consists of an insomnia clinical specialist, a clinical behavioral sleep medicine and CBT-I delivery expert, a sleep research/medicine expert, and the patients' primary care providers. Treatments to be delivered are CBT-I in different modalities - internet, phone, and face-to-face - all of which are empirically supported.
Behavioral: Sleep Healthy Using The Internet (SHUTi)
Sleep Healthy Using The Internet (SHUTi) is an empirically supported internet intervention. It uses a fully automated, interactive, multimedia format to deliver six 45-minute sessions, the structure and content of which mirror face-to-face CBT-I. Session content includes sleep restriction, stimulus control, sleep hygiene, cognitive restructuring, and relapse prevention. Each session has the same structure: objectives, sleep diary and homework review, new intervention material, homework assignment, and summary. SHUTi is enhanced through interactive features, including personalized goal setting, graphical feedback based on inputted symptoms, animations and illustrations to enhance comprehension, quizzes to test user knowledge, patient vignettes, and video-based expert explanation. Patients also receive tailored sleep recommendations and feedback based on the sleep diary data they enter into the program. We provide basic tablet skills training and tablets with data plans when needed.
Behavioral: Telephonic CBT-I
Telephonic CBT-I will be delivered by our insomnia clinical specialist following the highly cited treatment manual by Perlis et al. (2005). Sessions will occur weekly for 30-50 minutes. Telephonic CBT-I will be delivered from a central location - the Insomnia Clinical Specialist's office. Telephonic CBT-I has been shown to be acceptable, feasible, and effective, with effect sizes similar to face-to-face CBT-I.
Behavioral: Face-to-Face CBT-I
Face-to-face CBT-I will be delivered by our insomnia clinical specialist following the highly cited treatment manual by Perlis et al. (2005). Sessions will occur weekly for 30-50 minutes. Face-to-face CBT-I will be delivered at the Insomnia Clinical Specialist's office. CBT-I is the clear first-line treatment for insomnia.
Active Comparator: Active Control
Active Control (AC) consists of sleep education and hygiene (study staff), symptom monitoring (study staff), and usual primary care for insomnia (clinical staff).
Other: Active Control: Sleep Education/Hygiene, Symptom Monitoring, and Usual Primary Care
A designated trial research assistant will have two calls with each AC patient - one 45-minute call on insomnia education and one 45-minute call on sleep hygiene practices. The same research assistant will also call AC patients monthly to assess insomnia symptoms and will notify clinical staff to encourage additional care when indicated. AC patients will receive usual primary care for insomnia. The targeted clinics utilize a team care approach for behavioral health issues, as PCPs are supported by behavioral health clinicians and psychiatrists available for brief counseling and medication management. However, there is no routine screening for insomnia, and behavioral treatment for insomnia is typically limited to sleep hygiene practices.

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
High-Sensitivity C-Reactive Protein (hsCRP)
Time Frame: Baseline, 6 months
The primary outcome is 6-month change in hsCRP assessed by the Human CRP Quantikine ELISA (R&D Systems). hsCRP is a circulating inflammation biomarker that is implicated in the pathophysiology of CVD and is a predictor of future CVD events.
Baseline, 6 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
Interleukin-6 (IL-6)
Time Frame: Baseline, 6 months
A secondary outcome is 6-month change in IL-6 assessed by the validated MSD MULTI-SPOT® Assay System and 5 plex Proinflammatory Panel 1 Human Kit. IL-6, a proinflammatory cytokine that stimulates production of CRP, is moderately correlated with CRP, and is predictive of future CVD events.
Baseline, 6 months
Pre-Ejection Period (PEP)
Time Frame: Baseline, 6 months
A secondary outcome is 6-month change in resting PEP, an index of sympathetic activation, which will be assessed following established guidelines. Autonomic dysfunction measures are predictors of future CVD events.
Baseline, 6 months
High-Frequency Heart Rate Variability (HF HRV)
Time Frame: Baseline, 6 months
A secondary outcome is 6-month change in resting HF-HRV, an index of parasympathetic activation, which will be assessed following established guidelines. Autonomic dysfunction measures are predictors of future CVD events.
Baseline, 6 months
Hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c)
Time Frame: Baseline, 6 months
A secondary outcome is 6-month change in HbA1c. HbA1c will be measured by an immunoturbidimetric method on a Randox Daytona Clinical Analyzer. HbA1c is the gold standard measure of glycemia. HbA1c is a predictor of CVD events.
Baseline, 6 months
Homeostasis Model Assessment of Insulin Resistance (HOMA-IR)
Time Frame: Baseline, 6 months
A secondary outcome is 6-month change in HOMA-IR. HOMA-IR will be computed from fasting glucose (glucose oxidase method on a Randox Daytona Clinical Analyzer) and insulin (two antibody immunoassay on a Roche cobas e411 Analyzer). HOMA-IR is an established index of insulin resistance that correlates highly with the invasive euglycemic clamp. HOMA-IR is a predictor of CVD events.
Baseline, 6 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.
Indiana 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 Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI)
University of California, Los Angeles
University of Virginia
Regenstrief Institute, Inc.
Eskenazi Health

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: Jesse C Stewart, Ph.D., Indiana University Indianapolis

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.
April 25, 2024

Primary Completion (Estimated)

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.
July 31, 2027

Study Completion (Estimated)

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.
July 31, 2027

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 11, 2023

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 11, 2023

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 18, 2023

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.
August 6, 2026

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.
August 4, 2026

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.
August 1, 2026

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.
  • 17650
  • R01HL165115 (U.S. NIH Grant/Contract)

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

Yes

product manufactured in and exported from the U.S.

Yes

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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