Helping people stop long-term sleep medicines with guided tapering and online sleep therapy
Official title: Enhancing Hypnotic Medication Discontinuation in Primary Care through Supervised Medication Tapering and Digital Cognitive Behavioral Insomnia Therapy
Funded at National Jewish Health · NIH-11131045 · Data updated 2026-11-12
This project sees if a doctor-guided medication taper plus online cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia helps people safely stop long-term prescription sleep medicines in primary care.
Quick facts
| Grant type | R01 grant |
|---|---|
| Study type | NIH-funded research |
| Funding institution | National Jewish Health NIH-funded |
| Lab location | 1 site (Denver, United States) |
| Project start | August 1, 2023 |
| Project end | December 31, 2028 |
| Funding year | 2026 |
| Award (this year) | $526,276 |
| NIH project number | 5R01DA057266-03 |
| Project ID | NIH-11131045 on NIH RePORTER |
Who could benefit from this research
✓Could help
Adults seen in primary care who have been taking prescription hypnotic medications for insomnia, especially those using them long-term, would be the ideal candidates.
✕Less likely to help
People who need ongoing hypnotics for certain medical conditions, have unstable severe psychiatric illness, or are unwilling to follow a taper plan may not benefit from this intervention.
What this research studies
If you join, you would be enrolled through your primary care clinic and randomly assigned to receive a supervised medication taper combined with a digital program that teaches cognitive behavioral techniques for insomnia or to the comparison arm the study uses. The supervised taper is led by your prescribing clinician following an evidence-based protocol, and the online therapy delivers structured CBT-I lessons and tools you can use at home. The research is a large randomized trial designed to test whether combining these approaches makes it easier to reduce and stop hypnotic medications while maintaining or improving sleep. Study staff will track medication use, sleep outcomes, and safety over time.
Why it matters
Potential benefit: If successful, this approach could help patients stop long-term sleep medicines, reduce medication-related harms (like falls or cognitive impairment), and improve sleep using non-drug therapy.
How similar studies have gone: Physician-supervised tapering protocols and cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia have shown positive results in prior trials, and digital CBT-I has proven effective, but implementing the combined approach in primary care is less well tested.
Where this research is happening
-
National Jewish Health
Denver, United States Active
Researchers
- Principal investigator: Smith, Elizabeth Devon — National Jewish Health
- Study coordinator: Smith, Elizabeth Devon
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About this research
- This is an active NIH-funded research project — typically early-stage science, not a clinical trial accepting patient enrollment.
- Some NIH-funded labs run parallel clinical studies or seek volunteers for related work. To check, contact the principal investigator or institution listed above.
- For full project details, budget, and progress reports, visit the official NIH RePORTER page.