Sleep Therapies May Also Make You Healthier

Steven Dubovsky, MD reviewing Irwin MR et al. Biol Psychiatry 2015 Feb 4.

Even when improvements in sleep were not maintained, inflammation levels continued to be lower.

Insomnia is associated with increased inflammation and its consequences, such as depression and various medical illnesses. These investigators examined inflammation levels in 123 older individuals (mean age, 66) with chronic insomnia participating in a randomized study of two nonpharmacological insomnia therapies.

The treatments were 4 months of twice-weekly cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT-I), which targets sleep behaviors and arousal, and tai chi chih (TCC), which emphasizes relaxation and is associated with reduced sympathetic nervous system activity. A control condition provided educational sessions about sleep hygiene. The two active treatments were associated with improved sleep. With CBT-I, this improvement was maintained for a year after the intervention (i.e., month 16), whereas with TCC, it waned over time, possibly because participants spent less time practicing.

Compared with the control, CBT-I reduced systemic inflammation, as measured by C-reactive protein, as well as pro-inflammatory gene expression. TCC reduced cellular inflammation and pro-inflammatory gene expression. Exercise levels and body-mass index did not change in any group.

CITATION(S):

Irwin MR et al. Cognitive behavioral therapy and tai chi reverse cellular and genomic markers of inflammation in late life insomnia: A randomized controlled trial. Biol Psychiatry 2015 Feb 4; [e-pub].