For most older adults, insomnia gets filed under "annoying but normal": you sleep less as you age, you wake at 3 a.m., you get through the day. A new randomized trial from UCLA Health points to a bigger stake than feeling tired. Older adults who went through a structured, non-drug insomnia program were more likely to get rid of their insomnia, and their blood showed a measurably slower pace of biological aging over the following two years.
What the UCLA team tested
The study was led by Judith Carroll, PhD, an associate professor of psychiatry at UCLA Health, and published in The Lancet Healthy Longevity in September 2026. It's a secondary analysis of a randomized controlled trial of roughly 100 older adults with diagnosed insomnia, all recruited at a single Los Angeles site.
Participants were randomly assigned to one of two eight-week programs. One group got cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I), delivered by trained clinicians over multiple sessions. The other got sleep education therapy: solid, general information about sleep and healthy habits, but without CBT-I's behavioral techniques. That comparison group matters. It means both groups got clinician time and attention, so any difference points toward what CBT-I actually does rather than simply to being "in a program."
The researchers drew blood before treatment and at follow-up visits over the next two years. They then used DNA from those samples to estimate biological aging with three different epigenetic clocks: DunedinPACE, GrimAge, and PC-PhenoAge.
What they found
Two results stand out. First, people in the CBT-I group were nearly three times as likely to reach full insomnia remission as the education group. That result isn't surprising, but it's a useful confirmation in an older population. Second, and newer, the CBT-I group showed a significantly slower pace of aging on the DunedinPACE clock. The average difference between the two arms was about 0.02, which the researchers translate as CBT-I participants aging roughly 2% slower for every calendar year that passed.
UCLA's summary highlights the DunedinPACE result specifically, so it's fair to read this as a signal from one well-regarded measure rather than a clean sweep across all three clocks. Carroll's own framing is worth quoting: "Insomnia in older adults is often treated as a quality-of-life issue, but these findings suggest it may also be a modifiable risk factor for how the body ages."
What an "epigenetic clock" actually measures
As you age, chemical tags called methyl groups build up on and fall away from your DNA in fairly predictable patterns. Epigenetic clocks read those patterns from a blood sample to estimate how "old" your body is behaving, which can differ from your age in years. Most clocks work like an odometer: they estimate how much aging has accumulated. DunedinPACE works more like a speedometer. It estimates how fast you're aging right now, which makes it a natural fit for asking whether a treatment changed anything. Faster readings on these clocks have been linked in earlier research to higher risk of heart disease, diabetes, and early death, and prior studies have already tied insomnia to faster epigenetic aging.
A 2% slower pace sounds small, and for any one person over two years it is. The significance is in the direction: this is some of the first randomized evidence that treating insomnia, not just having it, shows up in a biological marker of aging.
Struggling with sleepless nights?
Our free Insomnia Relief Plan builds a personalized, step-by-step plan around your own sleep patterns. It's a practical starting point to bring to a conversation with your doctor.
What CBT-I is, and why it's already first-line
CBT-I isn't a new or experimental therapy. It's the treatment major medical bodies, including the American College of Physicians and the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, already recommend first for chronic insomnia, ahead of sleeping pills. It typically combines a few core pieces:
- Stimulus control: retraining your brain to link bed with sleep, not with lying awake and worrying.
- Sleep restriction or compression: temporarily limiting time in bed to consolidate sleep, then widening it as sleep improves.
- Cognitive work: loosening the anxious beliefs about sleep that keep insomnia going.
- Sleep hygiene and relaxation: the supporting habits, which on their own are much less effective.
That last point is the quiet lesson of this trial. The comparison group got good sleep-hygiene education and did noticeably worse, both on remission and on the aging clock. Knowing the rules of good sleep isn't the same as the structured behavior change CBT-I requires. We cover the broader toolkit in our guide to insomnia causes and remedies.
The caveats
The authors are upfront about the limits. The trial was relatively small, drawn from a single site, and not very diverse in age, race, or ethnicity. It wasn't able to say much about differences between men and women. It also doesn't tell us whether other insomnia treatments, such as medication or mind-body approaches like tai chi, would have a similar effect. Most importantly, a slower epigenetic clock is a biomarker, not an outcome. Nobody lived longer or avoided a disease in this study. Larger, longer, multisite trials will be needed before anyone can say CBT-I "slows aging" in the sense most people would mean it.
Key takeaways
- A UCLA Health randomized trial of about 100 older adults with insomnia compared eight weeks of CBT-I against a sleep education program.
- CBT-I participants were nearly three times as likely to reach insomnia remission.
- On the DunedinPACE epigenetic clock, the CBT-I group aged about 2% slower per year over two years of follow-up.
- General sleep-hygiene education alone did not produce the same benefits.
- The study was small and single-site and measured a biomarker, not lifespan or disease, so the findings are promising but preliminary.
Between 10% and 25% of Americans over 65 live with clinical insomnia, and many never get offered anything beyond a sleeping pill or a shrug. If that describes you or someone you care for, ask a doctor about CBT-I specifically. It's available through sleep medicine clinics, behavioral sleep medicine specialists, and a growing number of structured digital programs. The case for it was already strong. This study suggests the payoff may run deeper than a better night's rest.
Source: UCLA Health — "Cognitive behavioral therapy may reduce biological aging among older adults with insomnia," September 8, 2026, https://www.uclahealth.org/news/release/cognitive-behavioral-therapy-may-reduce-biological-aging. Study published in The Lancet Healthy Longevity, September 2026.
Medical disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute medical advice. The research described is preliminary and has not been shown to extend lifespan or prevent any disease. Consult a qualified healthcare provider about insomnia or any other sleep concern before starting or changing treatment.
About Better Night Sleep: Better Night Sleep is an independent sleep-education and product-research resource. Our articles are written and edited by the Better Night Sleep editorial team using reputable public sources and established sleep-health recommendations. Learn more about us.