Abstract
Sleep disturbances have been linked to increased morbidity and mortality, yet it is unknown whether improving sleep quality in older adult patients with insomnia alters biomarkers of diabetes and cardiovascular disease risk. Determine the comparative efficacy of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), tai chi chih (TCC), and a sleep seminar control (SS) to reduce multisystem biomarkers of disease risk in older adults with insomnia. Randomized controlled comparative efficacy trial. Los Angeles community. A population-based sample of 109 older adults with chronic and primary insomnia. Random assignment to CBT, TCC, or SS for 2-h group sessions weekly over 4 months with a 16-month evaluation (1 year after follow-up). Multisystem biological risk comprised of 8 biomarkers: high-density lipoprotein, low-density lipoprotein, triglycerides, hemoglobinA1c, glucose, insulin, C-reactive protein, and fibrinogen. Using clinical laboratory cutoffs defined as abnormal, a multisystem risk score was computed representing a sum of the deviation around the cutoffs across the 8 biomarkers. In addition, high risk grouping was classified if subjects exhibited 4 or more biomarkers in the abnormal laboratory range. An interaction of time-by-treatment-by-high risk group was found (F(4, 197.2)=3.14, p=.02) in which both TCC (p=.04) and CBT (p=.001) showed significantly lower risk scores as compared to SS at 16-months. CBT reduced risk of being in the high risk group at 4-months (odds ratio [OR]=.21 [95% CI, .03-1.47], p<.10) and at 16-months (OR=.06 [95% CI, .005-.669]; p<.01). TCC reduced the risk at 16-months (OR=.10 [95% CI, .008-1.29]; p<.05) but not at 4 months. Of participants who were classified in the high risk category at baseline, improvements in sleep quality, as defined by a clinical severity threshold, reduced the likelihood of being in the high risk group at 16-months, OR=.08 (95% CI, .008-.78); p=.01. Participants classified as having high multisystem biological risk at entry and assigned to CBT or TCC show improvements in risk scores after one year follow-up. Given that these clinical biomarkers are associated with cardiovascular, metabolic, and inflammatory disease risk, improving sleep quality has the potential to reduce the risk of chronic disease in older adults with insomnia. Clinical Trial Registration # and name—ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT00280020, Behavioral Treatment of Insomnia in Aging
Highlights
Insufficient sleep is a major public health epidemic [1,2], with estimates that between 9 and 13% of adults in the United States are not getting enough sleep [3,4]
Self-reported poor sleep quality with either short or long sleep duration is associated with dysregulation in physiological set points across regulatory systems, leading to elevated multisystem biological risk
Physicians should inquire about sleep health in the assessment of lifestyle factors related to disease risk, with evidence that healthy sleep is associated with lower multisystem biological risk
Summary
Insufficient sleep is a major public health epidemic [1,2], with estimates that between 9 and 13% of adults in the United States are not getting enough sleep [3,4]. The prevalence of inadequate sleep in employed adults is higher, with approximately 30% reporting short sleep duration (CDC) [1]. This is a particular concern given the growing evidence that short sleep duration increases risk for disease and death [5,6,7]. Poor sleep quality (e.g. difficulty falling asleep, staying asleep, early awakening) has itself been related to risk This relationship is pronounced when occurring with short sleep duration, in which the combination of poor sleep quality and short sleep duration predicts higher risk for hypertension, type 2 diabetes, and mortality than either poor sleep quality or short sleep duration alone [9,10,11,12].
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