Effect of Device Guided Breathing on Sleeplessness (2BRT01)

Sleeplessness, defined as difficulty in falling asleep or maintaining sleep, is prevalent in about one third of the US population. Sleeplessness was found to have negative impact on the quality of life and daily functionality and in its chronic form, was also found to frequently lead to sympathetic over-activity. Stress is an important factor in triggering and exacerbating sleeplessness and its symptoms. Current methods for alleviating the problem include drugs, modification of sleep habits (also delivered via smartphones), cognitive behavior therapy that includes relaxation techniques such as mindfulness, meditation, and diaphragmatic breathing. Breathing pattern modification, as done by Device Guided Breathing (DGB) was found to affect beneficially the cardiovascular system. DGB guides its user in reducing breathing rate gradually from normal values (12-20 breaths/min) to slow rates (4-6 breaths/min) while increasing the relative duration of the exhalation phase. This is done by composing in real time musical tones from monitored respiration data with which the user synchronizes breathing Breathing pattern modification, as done by DGB was originally implemented in a device called RESPeRATE that was cleared by the FDA for treating hypertension and stress and its use was supported by multiple clinical trials. However, the direct effect of DGB on sleeplessness has not yet been investigated, DGB was recently implemented in a mobile system that consists of a Bluetooth enabled belt-type breathing sensor and an iOS mobile application ('App'). The App accumulates continuously breathing-related data and performance measure. The accumulated data are sent to an icloud-based server. The current study is a single center, prospective, randomized, waiting-list-controlled (WLC) clinical trial designed to evaluate the effect of DGB on sleeplessness using the mobile DGB2 system.