The Contribution of a Body Scan Mindfulness Meditation to Effectiveness of Internet-Delivered CBT for Insomnia in Adolescents

Objectives Insomnia is highly prevalent among adolescents, with severe consequences for daily life, including mental disorders. Cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBTI) can be effective in internet-delivered and face-to-face modalities. However, it is yet unclear what the contribution is of mindfulness-based techniques to the effectiveness of traditional CBTI. The present study investigated whether use of a body scan mindfulness meditation influenced the effectiveness of CBTI for adolescents. Methods Adolescents who had received 6 weeks of internet CBTI were divided into a group who had practiced a body scan meditation (N = 26, age M = 15.33 years, SD = 1.42, 77% girls) and a group who had not (N = 28, age M = 15.64 years, SD = 1.80, 82% girls). Differences between the groups were analyzed for subjective and objective sleep outcomes from baseline to post-treatment and to 2-month follow-up. Results Moderate to large effect size improvements appeared for sleep parameters from 7-day actigraphy and sleep logs, and large effect size decreases of self-reported symptoms of insomnia and chronic sleep reduction, at post-treatment for both groups. Improvements were maintained at follow-up. However, where the non-body scan group showed no significant change of wake after sleep onset from actigraphy, and self-reported shortness of sleep and irritation, there were medium effect size improvements of these outcomes in the body scan group. Conclusions These results indicate that the use of a body scan mindfulness meditation in CBTI may have an additional positive effect on sleep, above and beyond traditional CBTI techniques.