NiteCAPP: Web-based Interventions for Insomnia in Rural Dementia Caregivers
Compared to their urban counterparts, rural family dementia caregivers (CGs) face increased vulnerability to insomnia and related health concerns (stress, inflammation, depression, anxiety, cognitive disturbance). Cognitive and behavioral treatments for insomnia hold promise for improving insomnia and these related concerns, but is difficult to access in rural areas. Our team developed brief behavioral sleep intervention that improved sleep, arousal, mood, cognition and inflammation (small to large effects). While telehealth improves accessibility, it is still burdensome for CGs due to inflexible scheduling and scarcity of trained therapists. Thus, more research is needed. Web delivery would increase access and web treatments for insomnia are efficacious in non-CG adults, but has not been tested in rural CGs. The proposed trial tests the novel hypothesis that web-based treatment (NiteCAPP) will improve CG health, mood, burden and cognition by targeting their shared underlying mechanisms - sleep, arousal and inflammation - thereby, returning sympathetic and hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis (HPA) functioning to normal. Demonstration that rural CGs can use NiteCAPP to target sleep, arousal/stress, inflammation and related health concerns has important implications for multiple stakeholders, including rural CGs, rural persons with dementia (PWD), their families, clinicians and policymakers.
Start: August 2021