Adapting Brief Behavioral Treatment for Insomnia for Former National Football League Players: A Pilot Study

Insomnia is highly prevalent among persons with chronic pain. Although cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia is recommended as first-line treatment for insomnia, it is underutilized. We tested the feasibility of a potentially scalable alternative - Brief Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia (BBTI) for former National Football League (NFL) players, a group with a high prevalence of chronic pain. We assessed changes in sleep, pain, and psychological health.

Single-arm clinical trial of an adapted telephone-delivered BBTI intervention in 40 former NFL players with insomnia. We collected data on changes in sleep, pain, and psychological health outcomes.

Among former players (30% racial/ethnic minorities), BBTI was both acceptable and feasible. BBTI was associated with improvements in sleep disturbance (primary exploratory sleep outcome, mean T-score change -6.2, 95% CI: -7.6, -4.8), sleep-related impairment (mean T-score change -5.7, 95% CI: -7.9, -3.5) and insomnia severity (mean change -5.3, 95% CI: -6.8, -3.5) post-intervention. Improvements were maintained at 2-months. BBTI was also associated with improvements in pain interference and intensity, but not psychological health.

An adapted telephone-delivered BBTI is acceptable and feasible among retired players with a range of insomnia symptoms and shows promise for improving sleep and pain. These data support the need for future trials assessing BBTI's effect on both sleep and pain outcomes.