Night-to-Night Sleep Variability in Older Adults With Chronic Insomnia: Mediators and Moderators in a Randomized Controlled Trial of Brief Behavioral Therapy (BBT-I)

Current Knowledge/Study Rationale: High night-to-night sleep variability is prevalent in older adults who have chronic insomnia, is associated with poorer health outcomes, and may maintain insomnia. It is unclear if and how sleep variability decreases over the course of a brief behavioral therapy for insomnia (BBT-I) and whether pretreatment sleep variability moderates treatment efficacy. Study Impact: The current findings indicate that BBT-I is efficacious in reducing sleep variability through increasing consistency of bedtime and wake time and reduced time in bed. Baseline sleep variability moderated the efficacy of BBT-I on primary sleep outcomes; individuals who had higher baseline sleep variabilities responded more positively to BBT-I. Sleep variability might be a useful measure for clinicians to identify patients who will or will not benefit from behavioral sleep interventions