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Meditate to beat insomnia
Meditation may be an effective treatment for insomnia, according to research presented at a US sleep conference
Insomnia is believed to be linked to 'hyperarousal' - a condition of muscular and emotional tension produced by flight-or-fight hormones, says lead researcher Ramadevi Gourineni, MD, director of the insomnia program at Northwestern Memorial Hospital, Illinois.
However, a small-scale study involving 11 otherwise healthy chronic insomnia sufferers produced promising results. The participants were divided into two groups. One group received health education relating to exercise, nutrition, weight loss and stress management. The other group practised Kriya Yoga, a form of meditation that has been shown to reduce measures of arousal.
Subjective measures of sleep and depression were collected at the start of the study and after the two-month period. Results indicate that patients noticed improvements in sleep quality while practising meditation. Sleep latency (how long it takes to fall asleep), total sleep time, total wake time, wake after sleep onset, sleep efficiency, sleep quality and depression improved in patients who used meditation.
"Results of the study show that teaching deep relaxation techniques during the daytime can help improve sleep at night," said Gourineni.
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