Yoga as a Treatment for Insomnia

April 27, 2015 updated by: National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH)
The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of a daily, 8-week treatment for insomnia using yoga, relaxation exercises or sleep hygiene.

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

Insomnia is a sleep disorder characterized by a chronic difficulty in initiating and maintaining sleep which has a relatively high prevalence and a significant socioeconomic cost. There is good evidence that cognitive and/or physiological arousal, associated with sustained sympathetic activation, is one of the underlying causes of insomnia. Relaxation treatments such as progressive relaxation and meditation which address the cognitive and somatic arousal associated with insomnia have been found to be effective. Yoga is a comprehensive discipline which includes physical exercises, postures, breathing techniques, and meditation, for the purpose of improving health and well being. Research studies have documented the effectiveness of yoga in reducing sympathetic activation and cognitive and somatic arousal and in the treatment of specific medical disorders. Although it has been used and recommended for the treatment of insomnia, its effectiveness has not been evaluated in a randomized, controlled study. The aim of this proposal is to evaluate the effectiveness of yoga, relaxation exercises or sleep hygiene in the treatment of chronic psychophysiological insomnia. A subjective measure of sleep onset latency will be derived from daily sleep diaries, and an objective measure will be drawn from polysomnographic recordings. Sleep onset latency will be evaluated before and after a two month treatment period in a total of 48 young men and women who have been carefully screened for psychiatric and medical disorders. Subjects will be assigned to a yoga, relaxation exercise, or sleep hygiene treatment group. We anticipate that yoga practice will prove to be an effective treatment for insomnia which will yield significant improvements in sleep onset latency. We also anticipate that these improvements will be maintained at long-term follow up evaluation.

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Anticipated)

48

Phase

  • Phase 2

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
    • Massachusetts
      • Boston, Massachusetts, United States, 02115
        • Brigham and Women's Hospital Division of Sleep Medicine

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

Ages Eligible for Study

25 years to 59 years (Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Genders Eligible for Study

All

Description

Inclusion criteria

  • A primary complaint of sleep-onset insomnia for at least 6 months.

    • Reside in the metropolitan Boston area

Exclusion Criteria

  • No current other nonpharmacological treatment for insomnia.
  • Ability or willingness to discontinue use of hypnotic medications.
  • No rotating or night shift work, or transcontinental travel throughout the course of the study protocol.
  • No recent or anticipated major life stressors over the course of the study protocol (e.g. impending divorce or terminal illness of a relative).

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: None (Open Label)

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: 1
Yoga treatment for 8 weeks
Behavioral: Yoga, Relaxation Exercises, Sleep Hygiene
Sleep hygiene and relaxation exercises, with additional yoga
No Intervention: 2
Sleep hygiene instructions only

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Time Frame
Sleep onset latency
Time Frame: 8 weeks
8 weeks

Collaborators and Investigators

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

Sponsor

National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH)

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Sat Bir Singh Khalsa, PhD, Brigham and Women's Hospital

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

April 1, 2001

Primary Completion (Actual)

December 1, 2008

Study Completion (Actual)

December 1, 2008

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

April 11, 2002

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

April 11, 2002

First Posted (Estimate)

April 12, 2002

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Estimate)

April 28, 2015

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

April 27, 2015

Last Verified

April 1, 2015

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • R21 AT000066-01A1

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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