Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation of the Default Mode Network to Improve Sleep
Public ClinicalTrials.gov record NCT04953559. Field values are reproduced from the official study page; the official ClinicalTrials.gov record remains the source of truth for eligibility, enrollment, and contact information.
Data is sourced from official ClinicalTrials.gov public API records. Always review the official ClinicalTrials.gov record for the latest information.
Brief summary
Reproduced verbatim from the official ClinicalTrials.gov record. Not medical advice.
Insomnia is generally believed to be caused by excessive arousal of the brain and body. Rather than transitioning normally and quickly from wakefulness to sleep, individuals with insomnia tend to enter into a self-perpetuating cycle of self-referential thought and arousal. Brain imaging research has shown that these same internally focused self-reflective thoughts tend to activate a core system in the brain known as the Default Mode Network (DMN). The DMN is usually active when a person is internally focused, such as during daydreaming or mind wandering, but tends to be deactivated when the brain is focused on the external environment. The investigators hypothesize that excess activation and connectivity of this brain network may perpetuate internal conversations, worry, and rumination, preventing individuals with insomnia from falling asleep quickly and remaining asleep. Therefore, the goal of the present study is to use a brain stimulation technique known as transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) to target the DMN and slightly reduce its activation before bed. This should result in an easier time falling asleep. For this study, the investigators will recruit 20 healthy individuals and have them sleep in the lab on two occasions. On one occasion, they will be stimulated with a type of TMS called continuous theta burst stimulation (cTBS), which will be targeted toward their DMN. They will then try to sleep in the lab while the investigators record their brain waves using a technique known as polysomnography (PSG). On the other occasion, these same individuals will undergo the same procedure, but the TMS machine will be in a deactivated mode to present a "sham" stimulation. Participants will again try to sleep in the lab following the sham treatment while being recorded with PSG. Neither the participants nor the experimenters will know which condition the participant is receiving at the time. This will only be revealed later. Additionally, all participants will receive a brain scan just before and just after the TMS procedures so that the investigators can examine changes in brain connectivity and chemistry. The investigators expect that the participants will sleep better following the cTBS than following the sham condition and that this will be associated with measurable differences in their brain connectivity and brain chemistry. If effective, this project would have identified an innovative and novel approach for improving sleep without using drugs.
Study identification
- NCT ID
- NCT04953559
- Recruitment status
- Recruiting
- Study type
- Interventional
- Phase
- Not applicable
- Enrollment
- 20 participants
Conditions and interventions
Conditions
Eligibility (public fields only)
- Age range
- 18 Years to 50 Years
- Sex
- All
- Healthy volunteers
- Healthy volunteers not accepted
This page does not interpret eligibility. Detailed inclusion and exclusion criteria are on the official ClinicalTrials.gov record.
Study timeline
- Start date
- Aug 5, 2021
- Primary completion
- Aug 30, 2022
- Completion
- Aug 30, 2022
- Last update posted
- Aug 16, 2022
2021 – 2022
United States locations
- U.S. sites
- 1
- U.S. states
- 1
- U.S. cities
- 1
| Facility | City | State | ZIP | Site status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| University of Arizona Psychiatry Department | Tucson | Arizona | 85724 | Recruiting |
Site contact phone numbers, emails, and investigator names are intentionally not displayed here. Open the official ClinicalTrials.gov record for site contact information.
About this trial record page
- What this page shows
- Public field values for ClinicalTrials.gov record NCT04953559, including study identification, conditions, interventions, eligibility (age, sex, healthy volunteer), timeline, and U.S. site list.
- What this page does not do
- No medical advice, eligibility judgments, treatment recommendations, study quality scoring, or AI-generated medical summaries. No site contact phone numbers, emails, or investigator names.
- Where the data comes from
- Sourced from the official ClinicalTrials.gov public API. The official record is the source of truth.
- Last refresh
- Last update posted Aug 16, 2022 · Synced Sep 3, 2026
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Open the official record
The complete protocol, eligibility criteria, and contact information for NCT04953559 live on ClinicalTrials.gov.