Chronic insomnia, REM sleep instability and emotional dysregulation: A pathway to anxiety and depression?

The world-wide prevalence of insomnia disorder reaches up to 10% of the adult population. Women are more often afflicted than men, and insomnia disorder is a risk factor for somatic and mental illness, especially depression and anxiety disorders. Persistent hyperarousals at the cognitive, emotional, cortical and/or physiological levels are central to most theories regarding the pathophysiology of insomnia. Of the defining features of insomnia disorder, the discrepancy between minor objective polysomnographic alterations of sleep continuity and substantive subjective impairment in insomnia disorder remains enigmatic. Microstructural alterations, especially in rapid eye movement sleep ("rapid eye movement sleep instability"), might explain this mismatch between subjective and objective findings. As rapid eye movement sleep represents the most highly aroused brain state during sleep, it might be particularly prone to fragmentation in individuals with persistent hyperarousal. In consequence, mentation during rapid eye movement sleep may be toned more as conscious-like wake experience, reflecting pre-sleep concerns. It is suggested that this instability of rapid eye movement sleep is involved in the mismatch between subjective and objective measures of sleep in insomnia disorder. Furthermore, as rapid eye movement sleep has been linked in previous works to emotional processing, rapid eye movement sleep instability could play a central role in the close association between insomnia and depressive and anxiety disorders.

Initial treatment choices for long-term remission of chronic insomnia disorder in adults: a systematic review and network meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND: We aimed to evaluate the comparative efficacy and acceptability of cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I), pharmacotherapy, and their combination in the long and short terms among adults with chronic insomnia disorder. METHODS: We searched multiple databases to December 27, 2023. We included trials in hypnotic-free adults with chronic insomnia comparing at least two of CBT-I, pharmacotherapy, or their combination. We assessed the confidence in evidence using CINeMA. The primary outcome was long-term remission. Secondary outcomes included all-cause dropout and self-reported sleep continuity measures in the long term, and the same outcomes in the short term. We performed frequentist random-effects network meta-analyses (CRD42024505519). FINDINGS: We identified 13 trials including 823 randomized participants (mean age, 47.8 years; 60% women). CBT-I was more beneficial than pharmacotherapy in the long term (median duration, 24 weeks [range, 12 to 48 weeks]; remission odds ratio, 1.82 [95% confidence interval (CI), 1.15-2.87]; [certainty of evidence: high]), while there was weaker evidence of benefit of combination against pharmacotherapy (1.71 [95% CI, 0.88-3.30: moderate]) and no clear difference of CBT-I against combination (1.07 [95% CI, 0.63-1.80: moderate]). CBT-I was associated with fewer dropouts than pharmacotherapy. Short-term outcomes favored CBT-I over pharmacotherapy except total sleep time. Given the average long-term remission rate in the pharmacotherapy-initiating arms of 28%, CBT-I resulted in a long-term remission rate of 41% (95% CI, 31%-53%) and combination 40% (95% CI, 25%-56%). INTERPRETATION: The current study found that starting with CBT-I for chronic insomnia leads to better outcomes than pharmacotherapy. Combination may be better than pharmacotherapy alone, but unlikely to be worth the additional burden over CBT-I alone.

Identifying mechanistic links between sleep disturbance and binge eating: the role of depressed mood.

Global sleep disturbance is robustly linked with a subjective sense of loss-of-control over eating (LOC). Depressed mood has been proposed as a mechanism to explain the bi-directional relationship between sleep disturbance and LOC eating. The current study evaluated whether sleep disturbance indirectly affects LOC eating via depressed mood. Adults seeking treatment for a DSM-5 binge-spectrum eating disorder (e.g. bulimia nervosa, binge-eating disorder) were recruited (n = 79) and asked to complete self-report questionnaires assessing sleep disturbance and depression, and a semi-structured interview assessing LOC eating. Tests of indirect effects evaluated the effect of depressed mood on the association between global sleep disturbance and LOC frequency covarying for BMI and parent study. A significant indirect effect of depressed mood on the association between global sleep disturbance and frequency of LOC eating was identified (Est = 1.519, S.E. = 0.859, p = .033). The indirect effect of depressed mood on the association between sleep disturbance and LOC eating may indicate that depressed mood serves as a mechanistic link between sleep disturbance and LOC eating. The findings offer preliminary support for adjunctive treatments targeting both sleep disturbance and depressed mood for LOC eating. Future research should explore these pathways in a larger clinical sample.

Insomnia.

Insomnia is highly prevalent in clinical practice, occurring in up to 50% of primary care patients. Insomnia can present independently or alongside other medical conditions or mental health disorders and is a risk factor for the development and exacerbation of these other disorders if not treated. In 2016, the American College of Physicians recommended that insomnia be specifically targeted for treatment. The recommended first-line treatment for insomnia, whether the underlying cause has been identified or not, is cognitive behavioural therapy for insomnia (CBT-I). Currently, there is no global consensus regarding which pharmacological treatment has the best efficacy or risk-benefit ratio. Both CBT-I and pharmacological intervention are thought to have similar acute effects, but only CBT-I has shown durable long-term effects after treatment discontinuation. Administering a combined treatment of CBT-I and medication could decrease the latency to treatment response, but might diminish the durability of the positive treatment effects of CBT-I.

Animal models of human insomnia.

Insomnia disorder (chronic sleep continuity disturbance) is a debilitating condition affecting 5%-10% of the adult population worldwide. To date, researchers have attempted to model insomnia in animals through breeding strategies that create pathologically short-sleeping individuals or with drugs and environmental contexts that directly impose sleeplessness. While these approaches have been invaluable for identifying insomnia susceptibility genes and mapping the neural networks that underpin sleep-wake regulation, they fail to capture concurrently several of the core clinical diagnostic features of insomnia disorder in humans, where sleep continuity disturbance is self-perpetuating, occurs despite adequate sleep opportunity, and is often not accompanied by significant changes in sleep duration or architecture. In the present review, we discuss these issues and then outline ways animal models can be used to develop approaches that are more ecologically valid in their recapitulation of chronic insomnia's natural aetiology and pathophysiology. Conditioning of self-generated sleep loss with these methods promises to create a better understanding of the neuroadaptations that maintain insomnia, including potentially within the infralimbic cortex, a substrate at the crossroads of threat habituation and sleep.

The efficacy of intensive sleep retraining for insomnia: A systematic review and research agenda.

Intensive sleep retraining (ISR) is a brief behavioural treatment for sleep onset insomnia, administered in just a single overnight treatment session. This systematic review evaluates existing trials about the efficacy of intensive sleep retraining for treating insomnia, to inform whether there is enough evidence to recommend its use for clinical practice. A systematic literature search was conducted across three databases, yielding 108 results. Of these studies, three were deemed suitable for inclusion in this review. The included studies consistently reported significant reductions in insomnia symptoms following intensive sleep retraining, particularly decreases in sleep diary-derived sleep latency and increases in total sleep time. Based on these inconclusive but promising findings, a research agenda is proffered to test intensive sleep retraining as a treatment for insomnia. Large randomised controlled trials are needed to elucidate the potential benefits of intensive sleep retraining for different populations with insomnia, as are mechanistic trials to test which components underlie its seemingly therapeutic effects. Since more practical modalities of intensive sleep retraining administration have been developed, such trials are more feasible to conduct now than ever before.

On the relationship between EEG spectral analysis and pre-sleep cognitive arousal in insomnia disorder: towards an integrated model of cognitive and cortical arousal.

According to the hyperarousal model, insomnia is characterised by increased arousal in the cortical, cognitive, and physiological domains. However, the interaction between these arousal domains is poorly understood. The present observational case-control study aimed to investigate cortical arousal during the night, pre-sleep cognitive arousal and the relationship between these two domains. A total of 109 patients with insomnia disorder (ID) and 109 age-and gender matched healthy controls were investigated on two sleep laboratory nights. Electroencephalographic (EEG) spectral power during non-rapid eye movement (NREM) and REM sleep was analysed as a measure of cortical arousal. In addition, patients completed the Pre-Sleep Arousal Scale (PSAS), which consists of two subscales, one for cognitive arousal (PSAS-CA) and one for self-reported somatic arousal (PSAS-SA). The relationship between the subscale scores and EEG spectral power was calculated by multi- and univariate analyses of variance. During NREM and REM sleep, patients with ID showed significantly increased spectral power in the EEG gamma band. In addition, patients with ID showed significantly increased scores on both subscales of the PSAS. The PSAS-CA score was significantly associated with increased NREM and REM gamma power, whereas PSAS-SA was associated with decreases in NREM and REM gamma power. Consistent with our hypothesis, patients with ID showed increased cortical and cognitive arousal. Moreover, there was an association between these two arousal domains, which may indicate that cortical arousal during the night is (at least in part) elicited by pre-sleep worry and rumination.

Comparative short-term safety and efficacy of hypnotics: A quantitative risk-benefit analysis.

Several professional societies have provided recommendations for prescribing medications for insomnia. None has provided an integrative analysis that concurrently quantifies safety and efficacy (e.g., risk-benefit ratios). This represents an important gap for informing clinician decision-making. Accordingly, the aim of the present review is to provide such an analysis for five classes of sleep-promoting medications. Adverse event data values were extracted from the most recent FDA-approved package inserts and converted to an integer before being placebo-adjusted and standardized as a rate per 1000 (AEr). Efficacy data, pre-to-post self-reported data for active and placebo conditions were acquired from pivotal trials identified in "white papers" and systematic reviews/meta-analyses. Weighted effect sizes were calculated for subjective sleep latency, wake time after sleep onset and total sleep time, and then were averaged by medication class for each sleep continuity variable. Overall efficacy was represented by a single variable, SWT (sleep latency + wake time after sleep onset + total sleep time). Risk-benefit was represented using a simple ratio value. For safety, it was found that melatonin receptor agonists had the lowest adverse event rate (AEr = 43.1), and non-benzodiazepine benzodiazepine receptor agonists had the highest rate (AEr = 255.0). For efficacy, it was found that the pre-to-post placebo adjusted effect sizes were largest for benzodiazepines (effect size = 1.94) and smallest for melatonin receptor agonists (effect size = 0.109). For risk-benefit, histamine antagonist had the most favourable profile (risk-benefit = 69.5), while melatonin receptor agonist had the least favourable profile (risk-benefit = 395.7). Overall, the combined metric for risk-benefit suggests that treatment with a histamine antagonist is optimal and potentially represents the best first-line therapy for the medical management of insomnia.

Sleep Continuity, Sleep Related Daytime Dysfunction, and Problem Endorsement: Do These Vary Concordantly by Age?

OBJECTIVES: Sleep continuity (i.e., ability to initiate and/or maintain sleep) worsens with age. It is unclear whether problem endorsement and/or daytime dysfunction show similar age-related trends. Accordingly, a large archival dataset was used to examine age differences in sleep continuity, problem endorsement, and sleep related daytime dysfunction. METHOD: Participants were categorized as: Young Adults (18-29 years); Adults (30-44 years); Middle Aged Adults (45-64 years); and Older Adults (65-89 years). Young Adults, Adults, and Middle Aged Adults were 1:1 matched with Older Adults (n = 233) on the basis of gender, race, ethnicity, and BMI. MANOVA, ANOVAs, and chi-square analysis were performed to assess for age-related differences. RESULTS: In a sample of 932 adults with self-reported sleep continuity disturbance (i.e., insomnia), sleep continuity was significantly worse in older age groups. This effect was limited to middle and late insomnia with middle aged and older adults waking up with greater frequency and for longer durations of time during the night and in the early morning than younger cohorts. Problem endorsement largely increased across age groups (except for sleep latency) but reports of overall sleep-related daytime dysfunction showed no difference by age. CONCLUSION: When evaluating sleep continuity disturbance, assessing whether the patient identifies their sleep continuity disturbance as a problem and whether it affects their daytime function can be informative, particularly in older adults. It may serve to reveal (case-by-case) when there are discordances between incidence/severity of illness and problem endorsement/daytime dysfunction. Such information may better inform if treatment should be initiated.

Do Placebos Primarily Affect Subjective as Opposed to Objective Measures? A Meta-Analysis of Placebo Responses in Insomnia RCTs.

INTRODUCTION: Little is known about the relative magnitude of placebo responses on objective and subjective measures of sleep continuity. To address this issue, the pre-post effects of placebos on objective and subjective measures (i.e., polysomnography [PSG] and sleep diaries) were evaluated meta-analytically. The guiding hypothesis was that large responses would be observed on sleep diary measures and small responses would be observed on PSG measures. METHODS: PubMed searches, 1967-2016, yielded 329 possible articles, 17 of which met the inclusion and exclusion criteria for the present analysis (including 879 subjects with PSG data, 1,209 subjects with diary data, and six studies with both PSG and sleep diary data). Average change and weighted effect sizes (ESs) were computed via modeling for sleep latency (SL), wake after sleep onset (WASO) and total sleep time (TST). RESULTS: Pre-to-post change on PSG measures were: SL -13.7 min., ES = -0.37; WASO -14.3 min., ES = -0.36; and TST 29.8 min., ES = 0.50. Pre-to-post change on sleep diary measures were: SL -13.5 min., ES = -0.36; WASO -13.3 min., ES = -0.20; and TST 25.5 min., ES = 0.36. The modeled average objective subjective difference per sleep continuity measure was less than 5 minutes. The modeled average objective subjective difference per sleep continuity measure (in effect sizes) was less than 0.17. DISCUSSION: The observed outcomes of this analysis suggest that placebos produce comparable effects on objective and subjective measures of sleep continuity. Thus, objective measures do not appear to protect against placebo responses. This being the case and given the importance of the subjective experience of illness severity and recovery, such data suggests that prospectively sampled sleep continuity data (sleep diaries) may be the optimal data for clinical trials, particularly when only one measure is possible.

A Drosophila model of sleep restriction therapy for insomnia.

Insomnia is the most common sleep disorder among adults, especially affecting individuals of advanced age or with neurodegenerative disease. Insomnia is also a common comorbidity across psychiatric disorders. Cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) is the first-line treatment for insomnia; a key component of this intervention is restriction of sleep opportunity, which optimizes matching of sleep ability and opportunity, leading to enhanced sleep drive. Despite the well-documented efficacy of CBT-I, little is known regarding how CBT-I works at a cellular and molecular level to improve sleep, due in large part to an absence of experimentally-tractable animals models of this intervention. Here, guided by human behavioral sleep therapies, we developed a Drosophila model for sleep restriction therapy (SRT) of insomnia. We demonstrate that restriction of sleep opportunity through manipulation of environmental cues improves sleep efficiency in multiple short-sleeping Drosophila mutants. The response to sleep opportunity restriction requires ongoing environmental inputs, but is independent of the molecular circadian clock. We apply this sleep opportunity restriction paradigm to aging and Alzheimer's disease fly models, and find that sleep impairments in these models are reversible with sleep restriction, with associated improvement in reproductive fitness and extended lifespan. This work establishes a model to investigate the neurobiological basis of CBT-I, and provides a platform that can be exploited toward novel treatment targets for insomnia.

Insomnia Severity and Degree of Dysfunction: What Is to Be Learned When These Domains are Discordant?

OBJECTIVE/BACKGROUND: Illness severity and resultant dysfunction are often linearly related and tightly coupled (concordant). Some percentage of individuals, however, exhibit discordant associations (high illness severity and low dysfunction [HL] or low illness severity and high dysfunction [LH]). In the present study, a sample of subjects with insomnia complaints were evaluated to determine what percentage of subjects exhibited discordant associations. PARTICIPANTS: Archival data were drawn from a community-based sample (n = 4,680; 61.8% female; Ages 18-105). METHODS: Median splits were calculated for illness severity and daytime dysfunction and each individual was typed as High (H) or Low (L) for the concordant (HH and LL) and discordant domains (HL and LH). RESULTS: Given this typology, 61% were classified as concordant and 39% were classified as discordant. Of these, 38% were sub-typed as HH, 23% as LL, 26% as LH, and 13% as HL. CONCLUSIONS: We propose that some of the discordance may be ascribable to a mismatch between sleep need and sleep ability. Those "who need a lot, may suffer a lot, in the face of only a little (LH)", whereas those "who need a little, may suffer only a little, in the face of a lot (HL)".

The natural history of insomnia: Does sleep extension differentiate between those that do and do not develop chronic insomnia?

According to the "3P model" of insomnia, the variable that mediates the transition from acute insomnia (AI) to chronic insomnia is "sleep extension" (the behavioural tendency to expand sleep opportunity to compensate for sleep loss). In the present analysis, we sought to evaluate how time in bed (TIB) varies relative to the new onset of AI and chronic insomnia. A total of 1,248 subjects were recruited as good sleepers (GS). Subjects were monitored over 1 year with sleep diaries. State transitions were defined, a priori, for AI, recovered from AI (AI-REC), and for chronic insomnia (AI-CI). Two additional groupings were added based on profiles that were unanticipated: subjects that exhibited persistent poor sleep following AI (AI-PPS [those that neither recovered or developed chronic insomnia]) and subjects that recovered from chronic insomnia (CI-REC). All the groups (GS, AI-REC, AI-CI, AI-PPS and CI-REC) were evaluated for TIB differences with longitudinal mixed effects models. Post hoc analyses for the percentage of the groups that were typed as TIB "restrictors, maintainers, and expanders" were conducted using longitudinal mixed effects models and contingency analyses. Significant differences for pre-post AI TIB were not detected for the insomnia groups. Trends were apparent for the AI-CI group, which suggested that minor increases in TIB occurred weeks before the declared onset of AI. Additionally, it was found that a significantly larger percentage of AI-CI subjects engaged in sleep extension (as compared to GS). The present data suggest that transition from AI to chronic insomnia does not appear to be initiated by sleep extension and the transition may occur before the elapse of 3 months of ≥3 nights of sleep continuity disturbance. Given these findings, it may be that the mismatch between sleep ability and sleep opportunity is perpetuated over time given the failure to "naturally" engage in sleep restriction (as opposed to sleep extension).

Insomnia disorder: clinical and research challenges for the 21st century.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Insomnia is a common and debilitating disorder that is frequently associated with important consequences for physical health and well-being. METHODS: An international expert group considered the current state of knowledge based on the most relevant publications in the previous 5 years, discussed the current challenges in the field of insomnia and identified future priorities. RESULTS: The association of trajectories of insomnia with subsequent quality of life, health and mortality should be investigated in large populations. Prospective health economics studies by separating the costs driven specifically by insomnia and costs attributable to its long-term effects are needed. Ignoring the heterogeneity of insomnia patients leads to inadequate diagnosis and inefficient treatment. Individualized interventions should be promoted. More data are needed on both the impact of sleep on overnight effects, such as emotion regulation, and the potential compensatory effort to counteract diurnal impairments. Another gap is the definition of neurocognitive deficits in insomnia patients compared to normal subjects after chronic sleep loss. There are also a number of key gaps related to insomnia treatment. Expert guidelines indicate cognitive-behavioural therapy for insomnia as first-line treatment. They neglect, however, the reality of major healthcare providers. The role of combined therapy, cognitive-behavioural therapy for insomnia plus pharmacological treatment, should be evaluated more extensively. CONCLUSION: Whilst insomnia disorder might affect large proportions of the population, there are a number of significant gaps in the epidemiological/clinical/research studies carried out to date. In particular, the identification of different insomnia phenotypes could allow more cost-effective and efficient therapies.

The European Academy for Cognitive Behavioural Therapy for Insomnia: An initiative of the European Insomnia Network to promote implementation and dissemination of treatment.

Insomnia, the most prevalent sleep disorder worldwide, confers marked risks for both physical and mental health. Furthermore, insomnia is associated with considerable direct and indirect healthcare costs. Recent guidelines in the US and Europe unequivocally conclude that cognitive behavioural therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) should be the first-line treatment for the disorder. Current treatment approaches are in stark contrast to these clear recommendations, not least across Europe, where, if any treatment at all is delivered, hypnotic medication still is the dominant therapeutic modality. To address this situation, a Task Force of the European Sleep Research Society and the European Insomnia Network met in May 2018. The Task Force proposed establishing a European CBT-I Academy that would enable a Europe-wide system of standardized CBT-I training and training centre accreditation. This article summarizes the deliberations of the Task Force concerning definition and ingredients of CBT-I, preconditions for health professionals to teach CBT-I, the way in which CBT-I should be taught, who should be taught CBT-I and to whom CBT-I should be administered. Furthermore, diverse aspects of CBT-I care and delivery were discussed and incorporated into a stepped-care model for insomnia.

Insomnia Symptoms and Suicide-Related Ideation in U.S. Army Service Members.

Background: Insomnia has been identified as a key risk factor for suicide, though most studies have been limited to global measures of these constructs. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the link between insomnia symptoms and five different aspects of suicide-related ideation. Participants: 1,160 active U.S. Army service members (719 male; Mage = 31.2; SDage = 8.62). Methods: As part of an archival analysis, retrospectively assessed insomnia, depression, anxiety symptoms, as well as suicide-related ideation, were evaluated. Suicide-related ideation was assessed in terms of: thoughts of death, thoughts of suicide, suicidal plan, suicidal intent, and suicidal communication. Results: Subjects with clinically significant insomnia symptoms were 3.5 times more likely to report any suicide-related ideation, and approximately 3 times more likely to report thoughts of death and thoughts of suicide. More frequent nocturnal awakenings (i.e., waking up three or more times during a single night) were associated with a greater likelihood of reporting thoughts of death or suicide, whereas greater middle insomnia (i.e., waking up and having difficulty getting back to sleep) was associated with lower odds of experiencing thoughts of suicide, suicidal plan, and suicidal intent. Conclusions: A more refined delineation of insomnia and suicide-related ideation may serve to clarify the nature of the association, and potentially offer some clues as to the underlying mechanisms. With regard to potential clinical implications, the results support that careful assessment of insomnia symptoms, suicide-related ideation, and their respective subtypes, is important and may influence how we estimate risk for suicide.

Characterizing Behavioral Activity Rhythms in Older Adults Using Actigraphy.

Wrist actigraphy has been used to assess sleep in older adult populations for nearly half a century. Over the years, the continuous raw activity data derived from actigraphy has been used for the characterization of factors beyond sleep/wake such as physical activity patterns and circadian rhythms. Behavioral activity rhythms (BAR) are useful to describe individual daily behavioral patterns beyond sleep and wake, which represent important and meaningful clinical outcomes. This paper reviews common rhythmometric approaches and summarizes the available data from the use of these different approaches in older adult populations. We further consider a new approach developed in our laboratory designed to provide graphical characterization of BAR for the observed behavioral phenomenon of activity patterns across time. We illustrate the application of this new approach using actigraphy data collected from a well-characterized sample of older adults (age 60+) with osteoarthritis (OA) pain and insomnia. Generalized additive models (GAM) were implemented to fit smoothed nonlinear curves to log-transformed aggregated actigraphy-derived activity measurements. This approach demonstrated an overall strong model fit (R2 = 0.82, SD = 0.09) and was able to provide meaningful outcome measures allowing for graphical and parameterized characterization of the observed activity patterns within this sample.

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia in Alcohol-Dependent Veterans: A Randomized, Controlled Pilot Study.

BACKGROUND: Insomnia is highly prevalent in individuals recovering from alcohol dependence (AD) and increases their risk of relapse. Two studies evaluating cognitive behavior therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) have demonstrated its efficacy in non-Veterans recovering from AD. The aim of this study was to extend these findings in an 8-week trial of CBT-I in Veterans. METHODS: Veterans recovering from AD were randomly assigned to 8 weeks of treatment with CBT-I (N = 11) or a Monitor-Only (MO; N = 11) condition and were evaluated 3 (N = 21/22) and 6 months posttreatment (N = 18/22). The primary outcome measure was the Insomnia Severity Index (ISI) score. Secondary outcome measures were sleep diary measures, percent days abstinent (PDA), and scores on the Dysfunctional Beliefs and Attitudes About Sleep Scale (DBAS), Sleep Hygiene Index (SHI), Penn Alcohol Craving Scale (PACS), Quick Inventory of Depressive Symptoms (QIDS), State-Trait Anxiety Inventory-Trait (STAI-T) scale, and Short Form 12-item (SF-12). Mixed-effects regression models, adjusted for race, evaluated differences in outcomes between the groups over a 6-month period (clinicaltrials.gov identifier = NCT01603381). RESULTS: Subjects were male, aged 54.5 (SD = 6.9) years, and had 26.4 (SD = 26.3) days of abstinence before their baseline evaluation. CBT-I produced a significantly greater improvement in model-based estimates than MO (mean change at 6 months compared to their baseline) for ISI, sleep latency from a daily sleep diary, DBAS mean score, and SHI total score. PDA and QIDS improved over time, but there was no difference between the groups. PACS, STAI-T, or SF-12 scale did not show any improvement from their baseline scores. CONCLUSIONS: CBT-I treatment demonstrated substantial efficacy in reducing insomnia, associated negative cognitions, and improving sleep hygiene in Veterans during early recovery, though it did not reduce drinking behavior.