Dietary Supplementation With Branched Chain Amino Acids to Improve Sleep in Veterans With Traumatic Brain Injury: A Randomized Double-Blind Placebo-Controlled Pilot and Feasibility Trial.
Level 2 - randomized trial
Individual randomized double-blind placebo-controlled trial.
PubMed 35602971 · doi:10.3389/fnsys.2022.854874
What was done
Thirty-two military veterans with traumatic brain injury (TBI) were randomized in a double-blind, placebo-controlled pilot trial to receive branched-chain amino acids (BCAA: 30 g twice daily for 21 days) or one of two placebo controls (microcrystalline cellulose or rice protein, each 30 g twice daily for 21 days). Outcomes assessed pre- and post-intervention included subjective sleep questionnaires, daily sleep diaries, wrist actigraphy, neuropsychological testing, and blood biomarkers.
What was found
Six participants withdrew (2 per group), leaving 26 completers. Protocol adherence was 93% for BCAA, 96% for rice protein, 95% for microcrystalline cellulose, and 87% for actigraphy. The abstract reports that BCAA supplementation was well-tolerated with no adverse events and led to statistically significant improvements in subjective insomnia symptoms, actigraphy-measured sleep latency, and wake after sleep onset; however, exact numerical effect sizes, p-values, and cognitive/biomarker data are not reported in the abstract.
Why it matters
This pilot trial provides preliminary feasibility and early efficacy signals suggesting that targeted BCAA supplementation may help improve sleep architecture and insomnia symptoms in individuals with chronic TBI.
Limits
The study had a very small sample size (n=32 enrolled, n=26 completed) split across three arms, a short intervention duration (21 days), and a narrow demographic (veterans with TBI). Specific numerical findings, effect sizes, and results for cognitive testing or blood biomarkers were omitted from the abstract.