title: Mindfulness meditation and improvement in sleep quality and daytime impairment among older adults with sleep disturbances: a randomized clinical trial.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Sleep disturbances are most prevalent among older adults and often go untreated. Treatment options for sleep disturbances remain limited, and there is a need for community-accessible programs that can improve sleep.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To determine the efficacy of a mind-body medicine intervention, called mindfulness meditation, to promote sleep quality in older adults with moderate sleep disturbances.
  
  
  METHODS
  Randomized clinical trial with 2 parallel groups conducted from January 1 to December 31, 2012, at a medical research center among an older adult sample (mean [SD] age, 66.3 [7.4] years) with moderate sleep disturbances (Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index [PSQI] >5).
  
  
  METHODS
  A standardized mindful awareness practices (MAPs) intervention (n = 24) or a sleep hygiene education (SHE) intervention (n = 25) was randomized to participants, who received a 6-week intervention (2 hours per week) with assigned homework.
  
  
  METHODS
  The study was powered to detect between-group differences in moderate sleep disturbance measured via the PSQI at postintervention. Secondary outcomes pertained to sleep-related daytime impairment and included validated measures of insomnia symptoms, depression, anxiety, stress, and fatigue, as well as inflammatory signaling via nuclear factor (NF)-κB.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Using an intent-to-treat analysis, participants in the MAPs group showed significant improvement relative to those in the SHE group on the PSQI. With the MAPs intervention, the mean (SD) PSQIs were 10.2 (1.7) at baseline and 7.4 (1.9) at postintervention. With the SHE intervention, the mean (SD) PSQIs were 10.2 (1.8) at baseline and 9.1 (2.0) at postintervention. The between-group mean difference was 1.8 (95% CI, 0.6-2.9), with an effect size of 0.89. The MAPs group showed significant improvement relative to the SHE group on secondary health outcomes of insomnia symptoms, depression symptoms, fatigue interference, and fatigue severity (P < .05 for all). Between-group differences were not observed for anxiety, stress, or NF-κB, although NF-κB concentrations significantly declined over time in both groups (P < .05).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The use of a community-accessible MAPs intervention resulted in improvements in sleep quality at immediate postintervention, which was superior to a highly structured SHE intervention. Formalized mindfulness-based interventions have clinical importance by possibly serving to remediate sleep problems among older adults in the short term, and this effect appears to carry over into reducing sleep-related daytime impairment that has implications for quality of life.
  
  
  BACKGROUND
  clinicaltrials.gov Identifier: NCT01534338.
authors: Department of Preventive Medicine, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles.
authors: David S
authors: DS
authors: Black
authors: Department of Preventive Medicine, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles.
authors: Gillian A
authors: GA
authors: O'Reilly
authors: Cousins Center for Psychoneuroimmunology, Semel Institute for Neuroscience, Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, University of California, Los Angeles.
authors: Richard
authors: R
authors: Olmstead
authors: Cousins Center for Psychoneuroimmunology, Semel Institute for Neuroscience, Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, University of California, Los Angeles.
authors: Elizabeth C
authors: EC
authors: Breen
authors: Cousins Center for Psychoneuroimmunology, Semel Institute for Neuroscience, Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, University of California, Los Angeles.
authors: Michael R
authors: MR
authors: Irwin
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D015415:Biomarkers / Q000097:blood; D005221:Fatigue / Q000209:etiology / Q000517:prevention & control*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007249:Inflammation / Q000097:blood; D015141:Los Angeles; D008297:Male; D019122:Meditation; D008875:Middle Aged; D064866:Mindfulness; D052002:NF-kappa B p50 Subunit / Q000097:blood; D011788:Quality of Life; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D012890:Sleep; D007319:Sleep Initiation and Maintenance Disorders / Q000097:blood / Q000150:complications / Q000523:psychology / Q000628:therapy*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D016896:Treatment Outcome
chemical_list: D015415:Biomarkers; D052002:NF-kappa B p50 Subunit; C489548:NFKB1 protein, human