Systematic Reviews
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2021. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Psychiatr. Oct 19, 2021; 11(10): 897-914
Published online Oct 19, 2021. doi: 10.5498/wjp.v11.i10.897
Neurofeedback for insomnia: Current state of research
Florence Lambert-Beaudet, William-Girard Journault, Alexandre Rudziavic Provençal, Célyne H Bastien
Florence Lambert-Beaudet, William-Girard Journault, Alexandre Rudziavic Provençal, Department of Psychology, Laval University, Québec G1V0A6, Canada
Célyne H Bastien, Department of Psychology, School of Psychology Laval University, Québec G1V0A6, Canada
Author contributions: Lambert-Beaudet F wrote the paper and performed the literature search; Journault WG and Provençal AR collected the data; Bastien CH reviewed the paper.
Conflict-of-interest statement: Ms. Lambert-Beaudet reports personal fees from Neuroperforma, outside the submitted work. The other authors declare having no conflict of interests for this article.
PRISMA 2009 Checklist statement: The authors have read the PRISMA 2009 Checklist, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the PRISMA 2009 Checklist.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Célyne H Bastien, PhD, Professor, Department of Psychology, School of Psychology Laval University, Bastien, Québec G1V0A6, Canada. celyne.bastien@psy.ulaval.ca
Received: February 27, 2021
Peer-review started: February 27, 2021
First decision: May 5, 2021
Revised: May 18, 2021
Accepted: August 27, 2021
Article in press: August 27, 2021
Published online: October 19, 2021
ARTICLE HIGHLIGHTS
Research background

Insomnia is one of the most common sleep disorder among adults in Canada and the treatments currently available present some limits. Neurofeedback (NF) is a technique that could offer a new way to treat insomnia through the regulation of abnormal brain activity.

Research motivation

In the last few years, NF has been gaining attention in the research community. However, there are only a few studies in the field of insomnia and their methods and results vary greatly. It is important to offer a consensus as to what is missing and what is successful in NF research so that future researchers can build upon what has already been done.

Research objectives

The goal of this review was to summarize the research that has already been done concerning the use of NF in the treatment of insomnia. This summary includes the common results and methodologies used in NF research as well as the improvements that need to be implemented.

Research methods

Data from experimental studies pertaining to the use of NF as a treatment of insomnia was collected from four bibliographical database and analysed. A short summary containing the methods, the results and the conclusions for each study was provided as well as for each NF type. A general summary was presented for all the studies included in this review.

Research results

A total of 12 studies on 5 different types of NF were used in this review, including surface NF, z-score NF, open-loop NF, high-resolution relational resonance-based electroencephalic mirroring NF and Brain Music NF. All the studies reported a clear improvement of subjective sleep, but there was no consensus concerning objective sleep. Many studies suggest that training the sensorimotor rhythm in the sensorimotor cortex improves subjective sleep. However, many studies also point out a possible placebo effect. The diversity of methods used across studies hinders on the ability to replicate NF studies and create robust studies.

Research conclusions

The findings of this study support the hyperarousal model of insomnia, by increasing sensorimotor rhythm frequencies to decrease insomnia symptoms. To verify this theory, further research should be conducted to study the efficacy of NF to treat other disorders that are characterized by hyperarousal. This review has also point out the limits that currently plague NF research such as small sample sizes, inexistent placebo group and double blind design.

Research perspectives

This review has brought to light the need for more double-blind controlled and placebo-controlled experimental design and bigger sample size to prove the efficacy of NF as a treatment of insomnia.