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Abstract

Sleep disturbance and stress in postmenopausal women pose physical, mental, and emotional health hazards. Researchers examined the effect of a yoga intervention on sleep, stress, anxiety, and depression in postmenopausal women. The study employed a randomized, controlled trial with: (1) a treatment group (yoga intervention) and (2) an attention-control group (health education). All participants completed three PROMIS® – Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System – tools and collected saliva samples before and after the eight-week intervention. The PROMIS® tools measured sleep, anxiety, and depression. Salivary alpha-amylase quantified sleep; salivary cortisol measured stress; and participants self-reported hours of sleep.

Thirty-one women completed the study: 18 in the treatment group and 13 in the attention-control. The yogic intervention had a strong inverse correlation with hours of sleep (r = -0.7717; p = < 0.0001) as revealed by Pearson’s correlation coefficient. We saw a moderate inverse correlation between change in depression and PROMIS pre-intervention depression scores (r = -0.3960; p = 0.0303). Hours of sleep pre-intervention compared to hours of sleep post-intervention were lower (p < 0.0001). Change in alpha-amylase reached statistical significance from beginning to end (p = < 0.0001) in the intervention group. Compared with those who received only health education, those in the yoga group experienced improved sleep. Findings are limited due to the small sample size.

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