Digital Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia in Women With Chronic Migraines.

Objective/background: Insomnia commonly co-occurs with chronic migraines (CM). Non-pharmacological treatments for insomnia in CM patients remain understudied. This is a proof-of-concept study, which aims to evaluate the feasibility, acceptability, and preliminary efficacy of a digital cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (dCBT-I) for individuals with CM and insomnia (CM-I) in the United States.

Can Circadian Dysregulation Exacerbate Migraines?

Objective: This observational pilot study examined objective circadian phase and sleep timing in chronic migraine (CM) and healthy controls (HC) and the impact of circadian factors on migraine frequency and severity.

Background: Sleep disturbance has been identified as a risk factor in the development and maintenance of CM but the biological mechanisms linking sleep and migraine remain largely theoretical.

Methods: Twenty women with CM and 20 age-matched HC completed a protocol that included a 7 day sleep assessment at home using wrist actigraphy followed by a circadian phase assessment using salivary melatonin.

Effectiveness of a CBT Intervention for Persistent Insomnia and Hypnotic Dependency in an Outpatient Psychiatry Clinic.

Objective: To test cognitive-behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) in patients who not only receive psychiatric treatment in a outpatient psychiatry clinic but also continue to experience chronic insomnia despite receiving pharmacological treatment for sleep. CBT-I included an optional module for discontinuing hypnotic medications.

Method: Patients were randomized to 5 sessions of individual CBT-I (n = 13) or treatment as usual (n = 10).

Essential thalamic contribution to slow waves of natural sleep.

Slow waves represent one of the prominent EEG signatures of non-rapid eye movement (non-REM) sleep and are thought to play an important role in the cellular and network plasticity that occurs during this behavioral state. These slow waves of natural sleep are currently considered to be exclusively generated by intrinsic and synaptic mechanisms within neocortical territories, although a role for the thalamus in this key physiological rhythm has been suggested but never demonstrated. Combining neuronal ensemble recordings, microdialysis, and optogenetics, here we show that the block of the thalamic output to the neocortex markedly (up to 50%) decreases the frequency of slow waves recorded during non-REM sleep in freely moving, naturally sleeping-waking rats.