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A mindfulness meditation mobile app improves depression and anxiety in adults with sleep disturbance: Analysis from a randomized controlled trial
RCT of 239 adults with insomnia symptoms (ISI ≥10) and little meditation experience: eight weeks of a commercial meditation smartphone app yielded greater improvements in depression and anxiety than control, with authors reporting that reductions in pre-sleep arousal mediated part of the depression pathway.
Design
- Population: 239 adults with ISI ≥10 and limited/no meditation history
- Schedule: assessments at baseline, 4 weeks, 8 weeks
- Intervention: guided meditation smartphone app vs control (read paper for control description)
- Stats: repeated-measures ANCOVA for mood endpoints; PROCESS mediation models
Outcomes (abstract)
- Depression / anxiety: greater improvement in the meditation arm across the trial window (group × time pattern per abstract)
- Mediation: changes in somatic and cognitive pre-sleep arousal at mid-trial fully mediated depression changes and partially mediated anxiety changes; fatigue and daytime sleepiness paths were not significant mediators
Evidence hygiene
Self-report outcomes in insomnia-symptom enriched sample—not polysomnography; commercial app content may differ from MBSR/MBCT curricula in Goyal 2014.
Publication
Huberty J, Puzia ME, Green J, et al. Gen Hosp Psychiatry. 2021 Nov-Dec;73:30–37. PMID 34537477.
Outcomes
- Meditation smartphone app vs control over 8 weeks: greater improvement in depression and anxiety among adults with insomnia symptoms (ISI ≥10); pre-sleep arousal reductions mediated depression fully and anxiety partially (Huberty et al. 2021 abstract).