Introduction
anxiety, multiple sclerosis, Insomnia, SE, stress reduction
MULTIPLE SCLEROSIS, CHRONIC INSOMNIA
Twenty to fifty percent of persons with multiple sclerosis (PWMS) report having chronic insomnia (CI) [The clinical impact of chronic insomnia in PWMS, while frequently overlooked by clinicians, is supported by several studies demonstrating an overall lower quality of life [Insomnia is often treated pharmacologically with antidepressants, anxiolytics, antihistamines, and benzodiazepines. Some PWMS self-medicate with cannabis [Clearly, effective non-pharmacological treatments need to be explored to avoid these hazards. Two such programs, Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) and the Sleep Hygiene (SH) index have been used to treat CI. MBSR has its origins in non-Western Buddhist philosophy, and was developed by John Cabot Zin, PhD for stress reduction and anxiety [The purpose of this pilot study is to contrast the effectiveness of two therapies to treat CI in PWMS and their impact on subjective and objective measures of sleep, quality of life and actigraphy using the Fitbit™ Charge 2 band. We hypothesize that MBSI-I is superior to SH in improving sleep efficiency (SE) in PWMS with CI, and this will be associated with significant benefits in self-reported quality of life outcome measures compared to SH.