Self-management of Stress and Sleep Disturbances with Virtual Reality Relaxation

Summary

Stress is a well-established factor in the onset and continuation of burn-out anxiety, mood and psychotic disorders. Furthermore, sleep disturbances predispose and exacerbate mental health symptoms of the condition. In people with mental health problems, higher (social) stress-reactivity and impaired stress-recovery are present which is further aggravated by sleep disturbances and sleep deprivation. Relaxation reduces the stress, which in turn may reduce mental health symptoms, improve daily life functioning and quality of life. The burden of burn-out and psychiatric illness can be decreased by stress-reducing interventions which have been shown to improve quality of life and social and occupational functioning. Although current stress-reducing interventions appear to be efficacious, it must be taken into account that they require mental effort (i.e. attention and concentration of patients) which is often impaired in patients. To bridge this gap, a new e-Health application was developed called VRelax. VRelax is a virtual reality self-management stress-reduction tool (VRelax). This tool requires far less effort than traditional relaxation exercises due to its immersive properties, and has an immediate effect on perceived stress and emotional mental states. In this study, the short-, medium- and long term effect of VRelax + treatment as usual (TAU) compared to TAU and relaxation exercises on symptomatic recovery, level of social functioning, healthcare consumption and societal costs will be investigated.

Conditions

• Virtual Reality

Interventions

DEVICE

VRelax

Virtual Relaxation relaxation, VRelax, includes a collection of high quality 360° degrees videos of nature environments with 3D audio and interactive elements, created for relaxation, stress-reduction and improving sleep. When activated, the participant can choose specific 360° videos from a menu. The 360° videos include among other things a coral reef with an interactive game element of popping air bubbles, a scuba diving experience with dolphins, a mountain meadow with cows, and a session of Tibetan sound bowls.

OTHER

Relaxation exercises

Relaxation exercises consisting of audio-guided breathing exercises, muscle relaxation exercises, and body scan exercises

Sponsors & Collaborators

• University of Twente

  collaborator OTHER

• ZonMw: The Netherlands Organisation for Health Research and Development

  collaborator OTHER

• University Medical Center Groningen

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Catheleine van Driel · University Medical Center Groningen

• Wim Veling · University Medical Center Groningen

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

TREATMENT

Masking

SINGLE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

18 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2022-06-23

Primary Completion

2025-09-30

Completion

2026-09-30

Countries

• Netherlands

Study Locations