Impact of Hyperarousal on Simple and Complex Cognitive Task Performance Among Insomnia Sufferers

The purpose of this study is to learn more about people with insomnia disorder and cognitive impairment. Cognitive impairment is difficulty with mental abilities such as thinking, knowing and remembering.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Insomnia; Primary Insomnia; Chronic Insomnia
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: Multiple Sleep Latency Test (MSLT)

Detailed Description

Primary insomnia (PI) sufferers typically complain of such daytime impairments as reduced attention, concentration, memory and global mental acuity. Moreover, epidemiological studies have shown PI contributes to reduced productivity, work and traffic accidents, and serious falls among the elderly. Despite such findings, laboratory-based efforts to corroborate the cognitive complaints of PI sufferers have produced mixed results. Indeed, many studies comparing PI sufferers with non-complaining normal sleepers across a range of neuropsychological tests have failed to show any relative deficits among the PI group. Such findings, in turn, has led to the impression that PI patients cognitive complaints may be over-stated and result from their attentional bias toward minor cognitive errors, dysfunctional beliefs about the impact of insomnia on functioning or excessive self focus rather than to any measurable daytime impairment.

However, many previous such studies were underpowered due to small sample sizes and employed neuropsychological tests designed for detecting impairment resulting from brain disease/damage rather than the more subtle albeit significant impairments of which PI patients complain. In recent research, we and others have shown that PI sufferers do, indeed, show greater deficits (slower and more variable reaction times) particularly on complex switching attention tasks. Moreover, there is some preliminary evidence that the subgroup of PI sufferers with elevated levels of physiological hyperarousal are most prone to suffer from neuro-cognitive performance deficits than are matched groups of PI sufferers who are not physiologically hyperaroused and normally alert individuals without insomnia. For example, Fernandez-Mendoza recently showed that PI sufferers with a hyperarousal pattern suggested by their objective short sleep duration on serial polysomnograms (PSG) performed more poorly on a complex switching attention task than did both normal sleepers and PI sufferers with normal objective sleep durations.

In our efforts to follow up on this latter work, we recently examined the error rates of alert and sleepy PI sufferers and normal sleepers across a series of simple and complex reaction time tasks. We employed age and gender matched samples of PI (N=89) sufferers and normal sleepers-NS (N=95). Participants underwent three nights of PSG followed by daytime testing with a four-trial Multiple Sleep Latency Test-MSLT. The PI and NS groups were each subdivided into "alert" (e.g., MSLT mean onset latency > 8 minutes) and "sleepy" (e.g., MSLT mean onset latency < 8 minutes) subgroups to allow for testing the main and interaction effects of participant type and level of alertness. "Alert" participants had longer MSLT latencies than "sleepy" participants (12.7 vs. 5.4 minutes). PI sufferers had fewer correct responses on performance testing than did NS. However, as shown by the adjacent, figure we found a significant group x alertness interaction (p = .0013) with greater error rates occurring among alert (hyperaroused) PI sufferers (Mean=4.5±3.6 errors per trial) than among alert NS (Mean=2.6±1.9 errors per trial). This was particularly true for the more complex switching attention task.

Our work along with that of Fernandez-Mendoza serve to confirm that PI sufferers have measureable objective neuro-cognitive deficits and provide some preliminary suggestion for the types of testing approaches that should be used to detect them. The identification of tests sensitive to PI sufferers' cognitive deficits are particularly relevant for testing the effects of current and future insomnia therapies on patients' objective daytime functioning. Measures of daytime dysfunction can and should serve as endpoints for assessing benefits and detriments of insomnia therapies. In addition, our recent work suggests that subgroups of PI sufferers may differ in their daytime deficits, with those showing physiological hyperarousal being most prone to make errors. This finding suggests that different types or doses of treatment may be needed to reverse the daytime impairments of the hyperaroused and non-aroused PI patients. However, our line of research would benefit by replication and extension findings to (1) further confirm the detrimental effects of physiological hyperarousal on PI sufferer's neuro-cognitive functioning; and (2) identify a broader range of tests that can be used for assessing diurnal cognitive impairments in both physiologically hyperaroused and lesser aroused PI groups. The current project will address these aims.

• Study Type: Observational
• Enrollment (Actual): 89

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• United States
  • Colorado
    • Denver, Colorado, United States, 80206
      • National Jewish Health

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 21 years to 80 years (Adult, Older Adult)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No
• Genders Eligible for Study: All

• Sampling Method: Probability Sample

Study Population

This study will use a matched-groups cross-sectional experimental design. Age and gender matched groups of hyperaroused PI sufferers and non-complaining normal sleepers (NS) will be recruited and enrolled. A comprehensive screening process that includes structured sleep and psychiatric interviews, screening questionnaires, medical exam, and diagnostic PSG will be used to determine eligible subjects.

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• 21 to 80 years of age
• Insomnia sufferers enrolled, will meet Research Diagnostic Criteria for insomnia disorder
• score > 14 on the Insomnia Severity Index
• report insomnia for > 3 months
• have sleep difficulties > 3 nights per week
• score < 3 on the Epworth Sleepiness Scale (ESS)
• score > 40 on the Hyperarousal Scale and report an inability to nap in the daytime
• The normal sleepers enrolled will report general satisfaction with sleep and no sleep/wake complaints, score < 10 on the ESS, score < 35 on the Hyperarousal Scale, and deny a practice of routine daytime napping

Exclusion Criteria:

• sleep-disruptive medical condition (e.g., rheumatoid arthritis)
• current major psychiatric (Axis I) condition on the basis of a Structured Clinical Interview for Psychiatric Disorders (SCID)
• sedative hypnotic dependence and unwillingness/inability to abstain from these medications while in the study
• use of anxiolytics, antidepressants, or any other psychotropic medication
• an apnea/hypopnea index (AHI) > 5 or a periodic limb movement-related arousal index > 5 during on screening PSG that includes a full sleep montage to allow for detection/diagnosis of sleep-disordered breathing and Periodic Limb Movement Disorder (PLMD).
• female participants who have tested positive on urine pregnancy tests or planing on becoming pregnant during the study
• Additionally, self-described NS who meet criteria for any sleep disorder and those insomnia sufferers who meet criteria for a comorbid sleep disorder in addition to insomnia disorder will also be excluded

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Observational Models: Cohort
• Time Perspectives: Cross-Sectional

Number of groups / cohorts

2

Cohorts and Interventions

Group / Cohort	Intervention / Treatment
Primary Insomnia (PI); PI sufferers enrolled will meet Research Diagnostic Criteria for insomnia disorder, score > 14 on the Insomnia Severity Index, report insomnia for > 3 months, have sleep difficulties > 3 nights per week, score < 3 on the Epworth Sleepiness Scale (ESS), score > 40 on the Hyperarousal Scale10 and report an inability to nap in the daytime.	Behavioral: Multiple Sleep Latency Test (MSLT); The daytime protocol will include a 4-trial Multiple Sleep Latency Test (MSLT) along with 4-trials of a computer -administered battery of reaction time tasks. The assessment protocol will start two to three hours after participants' respective morning rising times and will begin with a battery of the neuro-cognitive testing followed by an MSLT nap. Per standard MSLT procedures, the daytime testing will be scheduled so the four performance testing and sleepiness assessment trials occur two hours apart. All daytime testing will be conducted under the supervision of trained laboratory technologists.
Normal Sleepers (NS); The normal sleepers enrolled will report general satisfaction with sleep and no sleep/wake complaints, score < 10 on the ESS, score < 35 on the Hyperarousal Scale10, and deny a practice of routine daytime napping.	Behavioral: Multiple Sleep Latency Test (MSLT); The daytime protocol will include a 4-trial Multiple Sleep Latency Test (MSLT) along with 4-trials of a computer -administered battery of reaction time tasks. The assessment protocol will start two to three hours after participants' respective morning rising times and will begin with a battery of the neuro-cognitive testing followed by an MSLT nap. Per standard MSLT procedures, the daytime testing will be scheduled so the four performance testing and sleepiness assessment trials occur two hours apart. All daytime testing will be conducted under the supervision of trained laboratory technologists.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Number of Incorrect Trials During the Computer-administered Attention-Switching Task Test.Attention-Switching Task Latency Error Rate	Number of incorrect trials during the computer-administered Attention-Switching Task test, aka Attention-Switching Task test.Attention-Switching Task Latency Error Rate	All study activities for each participant were conducted during a one-day period

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Jack Edinger, PhD
• Collaborators: Merck Sharp & Dohme LLC
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Jack Edinger, PhD, National Jewish Health

Publications and helpful links

General Publications

• Edinger JD, Bathgate CJ, Tsai S, Khassawneh B. Impact of daytime sleepiness and insomnia on simple and complex cognitive task performances. Sleep Med. 2021 Nov;87:46-55. doi: 10.1016/j.sleep.2021.08.004. Epub 2021 Aug 12.

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): October 1, 2014
• Primary Completion (Actual): October 31, 2017
• Study Completion (Actual): December 31, 2017

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: November 4, 2014
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: November 10, 2014
• First Posted (Estimate): November 14, 2014

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): March 30, 2021
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: March 4, 2021
• Last Verified: May 1, 2018

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: insomnia; primary insomnia; chronic insomnia
• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Mental Disorders; Nervous System Diseases; Sleep Disorders, Intrinsic; Dyssomnias; Sleep Wake Disorders; Sleep Initiation and Maintenance Disorders
• Other Study ID Numbers: 2786 (Other Identifier: Biopharma Services Incorporated)