Sleep in Psychiatric Care (SIP): Treatment for Comorbid Delayed Sleep-Wake Phase Disorder (DSWPD)

Delayed Sleep-Wake Phase Disorder, Psychiatric Disorder, Sleep Disorder

Sleep disorders, Delayed sleep-wake phase disorder, blue-blocking glasses, psychiatric disorders, group-based treatment for circadian rhythm sleep disorder

Sleep disorders commonly co-occur with psychiatric disorders. Sleep disorders are often treated with medication or not at all in psychiatric care, although there exist a plethora of documentation of the effectiveness of sleep interventions. There is also an increase in studies showing effectiveness of sleep-interventions when the sleep disorder co-occurs with psychiatric illness. The recommended treatment for Delayed Sleep-Wake phase disorder is light therapy at gradually advanced timing and/or melatonin administered in order to help phase-advance the circadian rhythm. There is a great gap in the knowledge on how sleep disorders can be treated effectively when they occur comorbid to moderate and severe psychiatric illness. In this project the we therefore seek to investigate the effect of psychological and behavioural, group-based treatment in a randomized controlled trial (RCT) where sleep and psychiatric symptoms are the primary outcome measures.

The recommended treatment for Delayed Sleep-Wake phase disorder is bright light therapy (LT) at gradually advanced timing and/or melatonin administered in order to phase-advance the circadian rhythm. Recent research has proven that dark therapy, or blocking light in wavelengths \<530 nm by the use of for example orange blue-blocking glasses (bb-glasses), has shown the ability to maintain melatonin production comparable to darkness and to have an advancing effect on the circadian rhythm. The investigators therefore also want to test bb-glasses as an additive treatment to LT at gradually advanced timing. The sleep-school at Bjørgvin District Psychiatric Hospital (DPS) is an already established treatment since 2017. The DSWPD-group gets together every other Monday from 1 pm until 3 pm. The group is open, which means that participants start at different dates and meet people in the group that might be at the end of their treatment, this often leads the group to function as a support for each other. Participants are patients at the general psychiatric outpatient clinic at Bjørgvin DPS in Bergen, Norway. Participants have been referred to the sleep-team by their psychologist or doctor. In this RCT the investigators will carry on the same structure for the group for participants that are recruited to the RCT, hence the project has high ecological validity. All participants have an individual consultation before joining the group where the focus is on eligibility to participate in the group-based treatment, sleep-diagnostic evaluation, receive a standardized education on sleep-regulation and sleep hygiene advice and receive a date to start the group-based LT at gradually advanced timing. In a randomized manner, they will be allocated to the sleep-school group and start the treatment on the next possible date or to a 6 week wait-list and receive a date the treatment starts. All eligible participants will be informed that there may be a waitlist and receive a start-date without being informed that thay are on a waitlist group or not a waitlist group. All participants will be treated as usual (TAU) for their psychiatric problems parallel to either sleep-school or waitlist, hence both groups are in active treatment for their symptoms. Participants that start sleep-school as soon as possible, are also allocated to a) ordinary group-based LT at gradually advanced timing for 6 weeks or b) group-based group-based LT at gradually advanced timing for 6 weeks and bb-glasses. All participant will be followed up after 12 months.

Norway