Mindfulness meditation can improve sleep quality

Mindfulness meditation can improve sleep quality in older adults, a new study has found.
Researchers found that mindfulness meditation practices resulted in improved sleep quality for older adults with moderate sleep disturbance in a clinical trial comparing meditation to a more structured programme focusing on changing poor sleep habits and establishing a bedtime routine.
Moderate sleep disturbances in older adults are associated with higher levels of fatigue, disturbed mood, such as depressive symptoms, and a reduced quality of life, researchers said.
David S Black of the University of Southern California, Los Angeles, and coauthors conducted the small clinical trial in Los Angeles in 2012 and their analysis included 49 individuals (average age 66).

The trial included 24 individuals who took part in a standardised mindful awareness practices (MAPs) intervention and 25 individuals who participated in a sleep hygiene education (SHE) intervention.
Differences between the groups were measured using the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), a widely used self-reported questionnaire of sleep disturbances.

Participants in the MAPs group showed improvement relative to those in the SHE group.
The MAPs group also showed improvement relative to the SHE group on secondary measures of insomnia symptoms, depression symptoms, fatigue interference and fatigue severity.
However, differences between the groups were not seen for anxiety, stress or inflammatory signalling, a measure of which declined in both groups over time.

"Pending future replication of these findings, structured mindfulness mediation training appears to have at least some clinical usefulness to remediate moderate sleep problems and sleep-related daytime impairment in older adults," the study concluded.
The study was published in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine.