Introduction
sleep disturbances, daytime dysfunction, insomnia, Insomnia, arrest
DISORDER, DISEASE, ARREST, DNA DAMAGE
Insomnia is a disorder characterized by an inability to initiate or sustain sleep at night, accompanied by daytime dysfunction. Estimated prevalence of insomnia increases with age with roughly half of adults over age 65 reporting sleep disturbances, and 10–25% experiencing more severe clinical insomnia [This effect of insomnia on health in older adults may be particularly detrimental in an aging biological system as aged systems have reduced capacity to respond to new insults. Aging within the immune system has implications for immune defenses, including reduced bacterial clearance, vaccine efficacy, defenses against viral attack, and slowed wound healing [Although disease morbidity and mortality risk are elevated among those with sleep disturbances [Cellular senescence is a state of cell cycle arrest, commonly reached by cell replication (e.g., critically short telomeres) or excess cell stress (e.g., DNA damage) [Insomnia is a modifiable behavioral target with established treatment efficacy that might alter biological aging trajectories. Cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) is an effective intervention to treat insomnia among older adults and typically includes cognitive therapy, stimulus control, sleep hygiene, and relaxation training [In the present study, we hypothesized that treatment of insomnia with CBT-I would reduce expression of p16