---
title: Improve sleep using vestibular stimulation
nct_id: NCT06386497
phase: NA
status: RECRUITING
sponsor: Insel Gruppe AG, University Hospital Bern
study_type: INTERVENTIONAL
canonical_url: "https://parkinsonspathways.com/trial/NCT06386497"
clinicaltrials_gov: "https://clinicaltrials.gov/study/NCT06386497"
last_fetched: "2026-05-10T14:07:21.216Z"
source: "Parkinson's Pathways (curated)"
---
# Improve sleep using vestibular stimulation

**Goal (in five words):** Improve sleep using vestibular stimulation

**Official Title:** Overnight Treatment of Parkinson's Disease Using Vestibular Stimulation From a Rocking Bed (Somnomat Casa) - A Feasibility Study

**Trial ID:** [NCT06386497](https://clinicaltrials.gov/study/NCT06386497)

## Key Facts

- **Phase:** NA
- **Status:** RECRUITING
- **Study Type:** INTERVENTIONAL
- **Sponsor:** Insel Gruppe AG, University Hospital Bern
- **Target Enrollment:** 15 participants
- **Start Date:** 2024-01-11
- **Completion Date:** 2025-09-30
- **Conditions:** Parkinson Disease
- **Interventions:** Nocturnal translational vestibular stimulation
- **Intervention Types:** DEVICE

## Summary For Families

It tests whether gentle overnight rocking from a Somnomat Casa bed can improve sleep quality and reduce nighttime fragmentation for people with Parkinson's. The bed delivers slow translational vestibular stimulation to the inner ear, a non-drug way to nudge the brain toward deeper, more consolidated sleep, and the intervention is used while participants stay on their usual Parkinson's, antidepressant, and sleep medications. This is a small feasibility study with about 15 participants, using a noninvasive device and excluding people with bilateral deep brain stimulation. Adults 18 to 85 with Parkinson's by MDS criteria who have poor sleep (PSQI > 5), speak German, are not demented (MoCA ≥ 24), weigh under 150 kg, and have no major psychiatric or other neurological diseases can apply.

## Eligibility

- **Minimum age:** 18 Years
- **Maximum age:** 85 Years
- **Sex:** ALL

### Full Criteria

```
Inclusion Criteria:

* Informed Consent signed by the subject
* PD according to the MDS clinical diagnostic criteria for Parkinson's disease
* Suffering from reduced sleep quality as defined by pathological cut-off (score of \> 5) on the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI)
* Patients with stable antiparkinsonian, antidepressant, and sleep medications for six weeks before intervention and maintained on stable medication during the intervention period
* Treatment without bilateral deep brain stimulation
* Fluent in German

Exclusion Criteria:

* Brain disease other than Parkinson's disease (e.g. atypical Parkinsonism, Alzheimer's disease, vascular dementia, multiple sclerosis, stroke, traumatic brain injury, epilepsy, etc.).
* Dementia as defined by a MOCA score lower than 24/30
* Weight \> 150kg
* Depression with acute suicidal ideation
* Presence of major ongoing psychiatric illness such as acute non-controlled psychosis
* Poor general health (e.g. non-controlled diabetes, uncontrolled arterial hypertension, therapy for malignancy)
* Inability to follow the procedures of the study, e.g. filling out patient questionnaires due to language problems, psychological disorders, dementia, etc. of the participant
* Participation in another interventional trial within the 30 days preceding and during the present study
* Participants with PSQI score lower or equal 5
```

## Locations (2)

- Insel Gruppe AG, University Hospital Bern, Bern, Switzerland _(46.9481, 7.4474)_
  - Lenard Lachenmayer, MD — (CONTACT) — 31 664 12 59 — lenard.lachenmayer@insel.ch
- ETH Zurich, Sensory-Motor Systems Lab, IRIS, Zurich, Switzerland _(47.3667, 8.5500)_
  - Robert Riener, Prof. — (CONTACT) — 44 632 66 79 — robert.riener@hest.ethz.ch

## Central Contacts

- Lenard Lachenmayer, MD — (CONTACT) — 31 66 4 12 59 — lenard.lachenmayer@insel.ch

---

*Canonical: https://parkinsonspathways.com/trial/NCT06386497*  
*HTML version: https://parkinsonspathways.com/trial/NCT06386497*  
*Source data: https://clinicaltrials.gov/study/NCT06386497*