US Veterans Show Improvements in Subjective but Not Objective Sleep following Treatment for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder: Secondary Analyses from a Randomised Controlled Trial.

Background: Sleep disturbances are a prominent feature of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and poorer sleep quality is associated with higher PTSD severity. This highlights the importance of monitoring sleep outcomes alongside PTSD symptoms in treatments targeting PTSD. Yet few studies monitor both sleep and PTSD outcomes, unless sleep is the primary treatment target. Furthermore, inconsistencies remain about the effects of first-line, evidence-based PTSD treatments on sleep. Methods: Here, we explored changes in sleep in secondary analyses from a randomised controlled trial that originally assessed the noninferiority of a breathing-based yoga practice (Sudarshan kriya yoga; SKY) to a first-line PTSD treatment (cognitive processing therapy (CPT)) for clinically significant PTSD symptoms among US veterans (intent-to-treat Results: Following treatment, subjective sleep diary measures of quality, latency, and wake duration showed small effect size ( Conclusions: To our knowledge, this is the first study to investigate sleep as an outcome of CPT or SKY for PTSD, across a combination of subjective diary, PTSD symptom severity, and objective actigraphic measures. Findings lend support to a growing body of evidence that trauma-focused psychotherapy for PTSD improves sleep and suggest that yoga-based interventions may also be beneficial for sleep among individuals with emotional or mental health disorders like PTSD. This trial is registered with NCT02366403.