Mindfulness meditation practices could help improve sleep quality in older adults with moderate sleep disturbances.
An estimated 50 percent of individuals over the age of 55 have trouble sleeping, leading to negative side effects such as fatigue and depression, the JAMA Network Journals reported.
Researchers looked at 49 study participants with an average age of 66, 24 of which took part in a standardized mindful awareness practices (MAPs) intervention and 25 participated in a sleep hygiene education (SHE) intervention. The researchers used the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) to measure the differences in sleep quality between the two groups.
The team found both groups showed relatively similar improvements in sleep quality. The MAPs group had average PSQI scores of 10.2 at baseline and 7.4 after the intervention while the SHE group had average PSQIs of 10.2 at baseline and 9.1 after the intervention. Both groups also showed improvements in symptoms such as depression fatigue interference and fatigue severity.
"According to our findings, mindfulness meditation appears to have a role in addressing the prevalent burden of sleep problems among older adults by remediating their moderate sleep disturbances and deficits in daytime functioning, with short-term effect sizes commensurate with the status quo of clinical treatment approaches for sleep problems. ... Given that standardized mindfulness programs are readily delivered in many communities, dissemination efforts do not serve as a barrier in this instance. ... 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 researchers concluded.
The findings were published in a recent edition of the journal JAMA Internal Medicine.
