A blended eHealth intervention for insomnia following acquired brain injury

Online versions of cognitive behavioural therapy for insomnia in the general population have been developed to reach a larger group of patients with insomnia and to create easier access to treatment. Recent reviews show that internet delivered CBT is effective in improving sleep in adults with insomnia in the general population (Seyffert et al., 2016; Zachariae, Lyby, Ritterband & O'Toole, 2016). Since cognitive behavioural therapy is also effective for sleep disorders after acquired brain injury, eHealth seems to be a suitable intervention for this group as well (Nguyen et al., 2017; Theadom et al, 2017). The main objective of this study is to evaluate the efficacy of an eHealth cognitive behavioural intervention to treat insomnia in people with acquired brain injury.

The main objective of this study is to evaluate the efficacy of the blended eHealth cognitive behavioural intervention as an additional treatment to treat insomnia (e-CBT-I) in people with acquired brain injury.

The main research questions are:
1. Will the e-CBT-I result in a significant reduction of insomnia in people with acquired brain injury compared to a control group with treatment as usual, not specifically aimed at insomnia?
2. Does the treatment group improve more on subjective cognitive functioning, emotional well-being and participation than the control group?

Firstly, we expect to confirm that e-CBT-I is effective in the treatment of insomnia after brain injury. Secondly, we expect that treatment will improve subjective cognitive functioning, emotional well-being and (social) participation.

pre-measure (week 0), post-measures (week 7), 6-week follow-up (week 13)

The eHealth CBT treatment for insomnia after acquired brain injury is based on well-established CBT for insomnia in the general population and includes educational, behavioural and cognitive techniques. These techniques include sleep hygiene education, stimulus control, sleep restriction, cognitive restructuring, activation, relaxation, fatigue- and stress management. The eHealth CBT treatment for insomnia has been adjusted to ABI in content and way of displaying information.