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A Meditation Based Cognitive Therapy (HMBCT) for Primary Insomnia: A Treatment Feasibility Pilot Study

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Abstract

Previous research has indicated a critical need for cost-effective alternative therapies. The present pilot study aimed to evaluate a novel, cost-effective therapy for treating insomnia. The study employed a randomized controlled trial with two groups: therapy and control. Participants were screened using research diagnostic criteria for insomnia recommended by the American Academy of Sleep Medicine (AASM) before undergoing simple randomization. The study included participants from Hindu, Muslim, and Christian faiths who were assigned to either the therapy group (Hare Krishna Mantra Based Cognitive Therapy: HMBCT) or the non-therapy group (control with relaxing music). Both groups underwent six weeks of treatment with traditional cognitive-behavioral therapy techniques, including stimulus control, sleep restriction, and sleep hygiene. Each week, participants in the therapy group received six 45-minute sessions of HMBCT in the evening and were asked to practice the therapy in the evening of the day of sleep recording. Sleep quality was assessed using behavioral measures, sleep logs, and polysomnography recordings before and after the six-week treatment period. There was a one-week period before and after the six weeks when no treatment was provided. Results showed that HMBCT significantly improved sleep quality measures, including a 61% reduction in Epworth Sleepiness Scale (ESS) scores and an 80% reduction in Insomnia Severity Index (ISI) scores. Participants did not take any sleep-inducing medication during the study. These findings suggest that adding mantra chanting to traditional cognitive-behavioral therapy may improve sleep quality.

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Acknowledgements

The corresponding author would like to express their gratitude to Mr. Sanju Shrestha, an M.Tech student at IIT Roorkee, and Mr. Anmol Awasthi, a Mentor at Learn Gita Live Gita (https://learngitalivegita.com/), for their assistance with manuscript editing and final formatting of the version.

Funding

The work of the corresponding author was supported by the Institute funds under the contingency head of the Projects TCS/CS/2011191A, SRG/2022/001886 (SER-1968-ECD), and FIG-100953.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychiatry, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, 06510, USA

    Chandan Kumar Behera

  2. Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee, Roorkee, Uttarakhand, 247667, India

    Tharun Kumar Reddy

  3. School of Computing and Electrical Engineering, IIT Mandi, Mandi, Himachal Pradesh, India

    Laxmidhar Behera

  4. Department of Electrical Engineering, IIT Kanpur, Kanpur, India

    Laxmidhar Behera

  5. Institute of Medical Psychology and Behavioural Neurobiology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Tubingen, Tubingen, Germany

    Niels Birbaumer

  6. Brain Wave Science, Inc., Southborough, USA

    Krishna Ika

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Correspondence to Tharun Kumar Reddy.

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Behera, C.K., Reddy, T.K., Behera, L. et al. A Meditation Based Cognitive Therapy (HMBCT) for Primary Insomnia: A Treatment Feasibility Pilot Study. Appl Psychophysiol Biofeedback 48, 369–378 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10484-023-09586-2

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