Cognitive Behavioural Therapy for Insomnia on Sleep in Rheumatoid Arthritis.

Introduction: Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic autoimmune inflammatory joint disease that attacks peripheral joints and posterior tissues. More than half of patients with RA also have insomnia, which can modify pain, fatigue, quality of life and comorbidities. Traditional treatment of insomnia is often based on pharmacological drugs, however cognitive behavioural therapy for insomnia (CBT-i) have shown effect in insomnia with less side effects. It remains to determine whether CBT-i can be effective in patients with RA. The primary objective of this Sleep-RA trial is to assess the efficacy of CBT-i on sleep efficiency in patients with RA at week seven. Key secondary objectives are to estimate the clinical efficacy of CBT-i on wake after sleep onset, total sleep time, sleep onset latency, insomnia, sleep quality, fatigue, RA impact of disease and depressive symptoms at week 26. Methods \& Analysis: Sleep-RA will be carried out as a randomised controlled trial (RCT) with randomised assignment and two-group parallel design. Patients with RA and insomnia are randomly allocated 1:1 to the intervention group or the control group. The intervention group will once a week for six weeks receive group-based CBT-i, a multi-component intervention of; sleep education, stimulus control, sleep restriction, cognitive therapy and relaxation. The control group will continue treatment as usual (insomnia will remain untreated). Follow-up assessments will be carried out seven and 26 weeks after baseline. The primary outcome is sleep efficiency measured with polysomnography at week seven. Key secondary outcomes are: wake after sleep onset, total sleep time, sleep onset latency, insomnia, sleep quality, fatigue, RA impact of disease and depressive symptoms from baseline to week 26. Polysomnography, actigraphy and Disease Activity Score 28-Joint Count C reactive protein will be assessed by medical staff blinded to group allocation. The project manager will assist the participants w