Managing Insomnia Using Lucid Dreaming Training: A Pilot Study

ABSTRACT

Objectives/Background: Despite Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia (CBT-I) being considered the first-line treatment for insomnia, it is not without its challenges. As such it is worthwhile to consider, and test, alternative or adjuvant management options.

Methods/Participants: The aim of the present study was to examine whether Lucid Dreaming Training for insomnia (LDT-I) impacted on insomnia, depressive and anxious symptomology in an open label trial of 48 adults with Insomnia Disorder. Participants completed the Insomnia Severity Index, General Anxiety Disorder-7 and Patient Health Questionnaire at baseline then one month following LDT-I. Training consisted of four modules delivered over a period of two consecutive weeks.

Results: The results suggest, albeit preliminarily, that LDT-I may have a place within the non-pharmacological management of insomnia, as there were significant reductions in insomnia severity (t(46) = 8.16,p <.001), anxious symptomology (t(46) = 4.75,p <.001) and depressive symptomology (t(46) = 5.87,p <.001). Further, the effect size in terms of pre-post reductions on ISI scores was large (d_z 1.17).

Conclusions: Whilst the results are promising, further testing of LDT-I is needed to inform its place amongst the non-pharmacological treatments for insomnia.

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank Kyle Gilloway and David Littelwood for their assistance with data collection for the feasibility and pilot study.

Disclosure Statement

JGE is the director of Sleep Research and Consulting Limited. The other authors report no potential conflicts of interest.