Effectiveness of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Sleep Disorder: An overview of Systematic Review

Objectives: The purpose of this overview was to summarize the evidence regarding the effectiveness of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) for sleep disorders through systematic reviews (SRs) and meta-analyses (MAs).Methods: An overview of systematic review was conducted according to the study protocol (reviewregistry1320). A comprehensive literature search was performed using three databases (Pubmed, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, and Web of Science) and three Korean databases (KoreaMed, KMbase, and ScienceON). Final studies were selected by three authors according to inclusion and exclusion criteria, and data needed for analysis were extracted by a pre-planned extraction framework. Methodological quality of systematic review was assessed using the ‘Assessment of multiple systematic reviews 2 (AMSTAR2)’.Results: Fourteen SRs and MAs were included, of which eleven SRs were performed MAs. Twelve studies studied insomnia among sleep disorders, and the rest are nightmares and sleep disturbances with PTSD. Ten studies reported the effect of CBT on sleep disorders measured by insomnia severity index (ISI) and sleep onset latency (SOL), and all reported a significant improvement effect. Eight studies reported the effect of CBT on sleep disorders measured by wake time after sleep onset (WASO), and seven studies reported a significant improvement effect. The methodological quality of the studies evaluated with AMSTAR 2 was mainly low or very low because of omission of protocol registration and excluded study list.Conclusions: Practical guidelines and studies show that CBT is effective for sleep disorders, but access to CBT needs to be improved.