Sleepiness and the Risk of Falling

NCT ID: NCT00383357

Last Updated: 2007-09-20

Study Results

Results pending

The study team has not published outcome measurements, participant flow, or safety data for this trial yet. Check back later for updates.

Basic Information

Get a concise snapshot of the trial, including recruitment status, study phase, enrollment targets, and key timeline milestones.

Recruitment Status

COMPLETED

Clinical Phase

NA

Total Enrollment

24 participants

Study Classification

INTERVENTIONAL

Study Start Date

2004-08-31

Brief Summary

Review the sponsor-provided synopsis that highlights what the study is about and why it is being conducted.

The purpose of this project is to examine the impact of sleeping pills and waking up in the middle of the night on walking balance and cognitive function, to identify risk factors for falls in older adults. A significant percentage of falls, approximately 33 to 52 percent, occur during the nighttime and morning hours when people are normally sleeping; therefore, it is possible that sleep and sleeping medication related impairments in balance may contribute to this risk.

Detailed Description

Dive into the extended narrative that explains the scientific background, objectives, and procedures in greater depth.

Awakening from sleep is well documented to impair cognitive performance in young adults. This phenomenon, called sleep inertia, has been reported to impair performance just as much as one night of total sleep deprivation, suggesting that there are significant functional consequences to sleep inertia. However, whether walking stability is impaired by sleep inertia is unknown. If sleep inertia impairs walking stability, it could be an important but currently unrecognized risk factor for falls in older adults. Also, the impact of aging on sleep inertia-related impairments in cognitive performance is unknown.

Sleeping medication use is higher in older than younger adults, and is a risk factor for falls. Current evidence suggests that sleeping medications impair walking stability and cognitive performance in young and older adults during wakefulness; however, no study has examined walking stability and cognitive performance of young and older adults upon awakening from sleep at night after taking a hypnotic (sleeping medication). Therefore, the purpose of this study is to determine whether sleep inertia and hypnotic use impairs walking stability and cognitive performance more in healthy older than in healthy younger adults. It is expected that findings from the proposed study will provide evidence for sleep inertia as a risk factor for falls in older adults.

Twelve older (aged 60-85) and twelve younger (aged 18-35) healthy male and female volunteers will participate in the study. The investigational procedures will include medical screening (e.g., physical, blood and urine tests, and bone mineral density assessment), home monitoring of sleep schedules for three weeks, and three overnight visits in the laboratory spaced approximately one week apart. During the laboratory visits, participants will be awakened in the middle of the night to perform walking stability and cognitive function tests. Before going to bed, participants will take either a placebo pill or a sleeping medication. On one of the visits, participants will be asked to go to bed about 2 hours later than usual.

Conditions

See the medical conditions and disease areas that this research is targeting or investigating.

Aging Balance Sleep

Keywords

Explore important study keywords that can help with search, categorization, and topic discovery.

Performance Gait stability sedative hypnotic quality of life sleep disorder wakefulness sleeping pills Cognitive function

Study Design

Understand how the trial is structured, including allocation methods, masking strategies, primary purpose, and other design elements.

Allocation Method

RANDOMIZED

Intervention Model

CROSSOVER

Primary Study Purpose

TREATMENT

Blinding Strategy

DOUBLE

Interventions

Learn about the drugs, procedures, or behavioral strategies being tested and how they are applied within this trial.

zolpidem

Intervention Type DRUG

Eligibility Criteria

Check the participation requirements, including inclusion and exclusion rules, age limits, and whether healthy volunteers are accepted.

Inclusion Criteria

* Males and females
* Aged 18 to 35, or 60 to 85
* Lived at Denver altitude or higher for at least one year
* Stable treated diseases: thyroid dysfunction (including hypothyroidism and hyperthyroidism), hypertension, hypercholesterolemia, urinary incontinence, prostate enlargement, gastroesophageal reflux disease, irritable bowel syndrome

Exclusion Criteria

* Aged 36 to 59, under 18, or over 85
* BMI less than 18.6 or greater than 30 kg/m2, women below 95 pounds regardless of BMI
* Sleep duration is less than 5 or more than 9 hours
* Sensitivity to sleeping medications
* Night work in the preceding 6 months
* Transmeridian travel (across more than 2 time zones) in the last 1 month
* Bone mineral density DXA T-score of less than -1.75
* Orthostatic intolerance
* Prior history of falls in past year
* Prior history of injurious fall in past 5 years
* Hip fracture following a fall
* Difficulty rising from a sitting position without use of hands to push off
* Needing to walk slowly or with a wide base of support to maintain balance
* Hormone replacement therapy for less than 3 months
* Connective Tissue and Joint Disorders
* Neurologic Disorders
* Musculoskeletal Disorders
* Immune Disorders
* Sleep Disorders
* Chronobiologic Disorders
* Cardiovascular Disorders
* Respiratory Disorders
* Kidney and Urinary Tract Disorders
* Infectious Diseases
* Gastrointestinal Disorders
* Hematopoietic Disorders
* Neoplastic Diseases
* Endocrine and Metabolic Diseases
* Psychopathology
* Dementia
* Drug dependency
Minimum Eligible Age

18 Years

Maximum Eligible Age

85 Years

Eligible Sex

ALL

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Sponsors

Meet the organizations funding or collaborating on the study and learn about their roles.

National Center for Research Resources (NCRR)

NIH

Sponsor Role collaborator

National Institute on Aging (NIA)

NIH

Sponsor Role lead

Principal Investigators

Learn about the lead researchers overseeing the trial and their institutional affiliations.

Kenneth P. Wright, PhD

Role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

Department of Integrative Physiology, University of Colorado

Danielle J. Frey, PT, MS

Role: STUDY_DIRECTOR

Department of Integrative Physiology, University of Colorado

Locations

Explore where the study is taking place and check the recruitment status at each participating site.

University of Colorado at Boulder

Boulder, Colorado, United States

Site Status

Countries

Review the countries where the study has at least one active or historical site.

United States

References

Explore related publications, articles, or registry entries linked to this study.

Brassington GS, King AC, Bliwise DL. Sleep problems as a risk factor for falls in a sample of community-dwelling adults aged 64-99 years. J Am Geriatr Soc. 2000 Oct;48(10):1234-40. doi: 10.1111/j.1532-5415.2000.tb02596.x.

Reference Type BACKGROUND
PMID: 11037010 (View on PubMed)

Luukinen H, Koski K, Honkanen R, Kivela SL. Incidence of injury-causing falls among older adults by place of residence: a population-based study. J Am Geriatr Soc. 1995 Aug;43(8):871-6. doi: 10.1111/j.1532-5415.1995.tb05529.x.

Reference Type BACKGROUND
PMID: 7636094 (View on PubMed)

Wertz AT, Ronda JM, Czeisler CA, Wright KP Jr. Effects of sleep inertia on cognition. JAMA. 2006 Jan 11;295(2):163-4. doi: 10.1001/jama.295.2.163. No abstract available.

Reference Type BACKGROUND
PMID: 16403927 (View on PubMed)

Frey DJ, Ortega JD, Wiseman C, Farley CT, Wright KP Jr. Influence of zolpidem and sleep inertia on balance and cognition during nighttime awakening: a randomized placebo-controlled trial. J Am Geriatr Soc. 2011 Jan;59(1):73-81. doi: 10.1111/j.1532-5415.2010.03229.x.

Reference Type DERIVED
PMID: 21226678 (View on PubMed)

Other Identifiers

Review additional registry numbers or institutional identifiers associated with this trial.

5R03AG024621-02

Identifier Type: NIH

Identifier Source: secondary_id

View Link

5M01RR000051-45

Identifier Type: NIH

Identifier Source: secondary_id

View Link

AG0070

Identifier Type: -

Identifier Source: org_study_id