Sleep disturbances are prevalent among persons with rheumatoid arthritis (RA), and are not adequately relieved by conventional health care. The herb valerian has been demonstrated to improve objective and subjective measures of sleep, but has not been tested in persons with RA. The proposed study is a placebo controlled, randomized clinical trial investigating whether use of valerian extract (600 mg) one hour before bedtime for five nights will improve objective sleep outcomes (improved sleep efficiency, reduced awakenings, reduced sleep latency) and subjective sleep outcomes (reduced subjective sleep latency, improved sleep quality) compared to a placebo in persons with RA. Forty participants will be randomized to receive valerian or a placebo (20 per group). Participants will wear a wrist actigraph (a watch-like device that provides sleep measures by detecting movement) and complete daily logs for seven days. The first two days will be baseline measurement (no treatment). The following five days participants will take the valerian or placebo one hour before bedtime. Between-groups and within-subjects differences will be analyzed using mixed effects ANCOVA models. The study is supported in part by the University of Virginia GCRC.
