Active Psychology & Behaviour Mental Health

“Balm of hurt minds”: improving sleep and cognition in psychosis

Funder Wellcome Charity-funded
Associated organisations Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust · University of Oxford Europe PMC affiliations are not treated as award recipients or mapped locations.
Funding £3.1M
Period Jan 2024 — Dec 2027

In plain English

AI plain-English summary

A sleep therapy programme is helping people in the early stages of psychosis regain motivation and return to education. Sleep problems are common in psychosis, yet they are rarely treated directly. Standard care focuses on managing psychotic symptoms, not on the sleep disruption that can worsen thinking, daily functioning, and quality of life. This trial tests whether an eight-session sleep intervention—already shown to improve sleep in earlier studies—can also boost cognitive function and real-world outcomes for people at ultra-high risk or with first episode psychosis. If the therapy works, it could change how early psychosis care is delivered. Instead of treating sleep as an afterthought, clinicians might offer a brief, targeted sleep treatment that helps people think more clearly, engage in education or work, and feel better day-to-day. The research also includes a peer-led qualitative study to understand how and for whom the treatment works, ensuring the findings are relevant to patients’ actual lives. This is not fundamental science—it is a practical test of a scalable intervention with immediate potential to improve mental health care.

View original technical description
“I have now got the motivation to go out and start showing people what I can do. I have signed up to go back to college to go back into education and learn again.” Toby (after our sleep therapy) We aim to conduct the definitive test of the effects of improving sleep for people at the early stages of psychosis. Our team has pioneered the treatment of sleep problems in psychosis, conducting feasibility trials with patients at ultra-high risk of psychosis, with patients diagnosed with psychosis, and with people admitted to psychiatric hospital. In every trial our eight-session intervention has achieved large effect size improvements in sleep. We will conduct a randomised controlled trial with two cohorts: 554 patients at ultra-high risk of psychosis and 554 patients with first episode psychosis. The trial is powered to detect whether sleep therapy results in at least small improvements in cognitive functioning in each cohort. As recommended by our lived experience advisors, we will also test the effect of sleep therapy on real-world functioning, psychotic and emotional experiences, and quality of life. We will test how and for whom the treatment works, and gain further insights from patients in a peer-led qualitative investigation.

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Researchers

Daniel Freeman (EPMC Awardee)Louise Johns (EPMC Awardee)

Related Research

Grants with similar aims, by meaning.

Sleeping Better: A Randomised Controlled Trial Testing the Effects of Treating Sleep Difficulties in Patients at Ultra-High Risk of Psychosis and Patients Diagnosed with Non-Affective Psychosis
Treating insomnia in patients with delusions and hallucinations: a pilot randomised controlled trial.
Development and feasibility testing of a brief behavioural intervention to improve sleep in people with schizophrenia spectrum disorders.
Preventing psychosis in young people at ultra-high-risk attending NHS mental health services: a feasibility study of a novel intervention target.
Targeting sleep to improve anxiety and depression in young people

Original classification

Directed Call

Plain English summaries and category classifications on this site are generated by AI and may not perfectly reflect the original research.