Insomnia & Mental Health

Good sleep health is essential to sustain optimal mental and physical well-being. Conversely, poor sleep health and insomnia increase the risk of adverse health outcomes in mental, physical, and occupational domains. The overarching goals of the Insomnia and Mental Health research team are to improve our understanding of the psychological and biological underpinnings of insomnia phenotypes and develop more effective and more personalized treatments. This program will generate new knowledge about the prevalence, course, and burden of poor sleep health and insomnia in Canada, while seeking to identify reliable sleep predictors of long-term mental health outcomes. It will also expand our understanding of different insomnia phenotypes along several dimensions (e.g., autonomic arousal, brain activity, and mental health). This research will inform clinical practice with regard to how we can optimize insomnia treatment outcomes with personalized interventions as a function of insomnia phenotypes. It will generate novel evidence-based and culturally adapted treatments for insomnia, including new sleep intervention training tools for health care providers serving First Nations, Métis, and Inuit communities that are co-designed with these communities. By enhancing our understanding of the interrelationships of poor sleep, insomnia and adverse mental health, this research has the potential to reveal new avenues for improving both the sleep and the mental health of Canadians.

Team Leads

  • Charles Morin

    NOMINATED PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR

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  • Rébecca Robillard

    PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR

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  • Colleen Carney

    PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR

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  • Jean-Philippe Chaput

    PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR

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  • Thien Thanh Dang-Vu

    PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR

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  • Judith Davidson

    CO-INVESTIGATOR

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Meet The Team

  • Célyne Bastien, PhD, Université Laval

    Julie Carrier, PhD, Université de Montréal

    David Gardner, PharmD, MSc, Dalhousie University

    Ojistoh Horn, MD, MSc, Akwesasne First Nation

    Andrew Lim, MD, University of Toronto

    Jean-Marc Lina, PhD, École de Technologie Supérieure

    Dominique Lorrain, PhD, Université Sherbrooke

    Amrita Roy, MD, PhD, Queen’s University

    Shayna Watson, MD, Queen’s University

    Magdy Younes, PhD, University of Manitoba

  • Lydi-Anne Vézina-Im, PhD, Université Laval

    Andrée-Ann Baril, PhD, McGill University

    Imaan Bayoumi, MD, Queen’s University

    Alan Douglass, MD, University of Ottawa

    Stuart Fogel, PhD, University of Ottawa

    Mohamad Forouzanfar, PhD, École de Technologie Supérieure

    Ariel Garten, InteraXon

    Jordan Hovdebo, PhD, National Research Council of Canada

    Hans Ivers, PhD, Université Laval

    Elliott Lee, MD, University of Ottawa

    Kathleen Lemieux, MD, PhD, Université Laval

    Colin Shapiro, MD, University of Health Network

    Eleftherios Soleas, PhD, Queen’s University

    Paniz Tavakoli, PhD, University of Ottawa

    Lynda Bélanger, PhD, Laval University

  • Loïc Barbaux, PhD, Concordia University

    Karianne Dion, PhD, University of Ottawa

    Maryam El Gewely, PhD, Université Laval

    Sarah Fakroune, PhD, Université Laval

    Katherine Fretz, PhD, Queen’s University

    Samuel Gillman, BSc, Concordia University

    Anne Léonard, PhD, Université Sherbrooke

    Onkar Marway, PhD, Toronto Metropolitan University

    Aurore Perrault, Post-Doc, Concordia University

    Meggan Porteous, PhD candidate, University of Ottawa

  • Mary Bartram, Mental Health Commission of Canada

    Dave Gallson, Mood Disorders Society of Canada

    Benjamin Leikin, Ottawa Public Health

    Karen Roberts, Public Health Agency of Canada

  • Riana Rakotoarimananjara

    Michael Samson

Research Projects

  1. Prevalence and Burden of Insomnia and Poor Sleep Health in Canada (Leads: C. Morin, J.-P. Chaput)

  • Create a national cohort study of insomnia and sleep health

  • Establish a Canadian Sleep Health Registry

  • Improve the surveillance of insomnia and quantify its burden in Canada

2. Insomnia Phenotypes (Leads: R. Robillard, T. Dang-Vu)

  • Apply advanced signal processing and artificial intelligence methods to expand our understanding of insomnia phenotypes based on polysomnography

  • Investigate how different components of insomnia phenotypes predict treatment response to cognitive behavioural therapy for insomnia (CBT-I)

3. Treatment Development and Enhancement

  • Evaluate a novel multi-domain intervention converging CBT-I, fatigue management and pharmacotherapy for people with comorbid depression and/or anxiety disorders a function of insomnia phenotypes (Leads: C. Carney, C. Morin)

  • Enhance insomnia care with Akwesasne Mohawk Nation (Leads: J. Davidson, O. Horn)