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Yoga decreased insomnia in postmenopausal women
Afonso RF. Menopause. 2012;19:186-193.
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Yoga may reduce insomnia and menopausal symptoms and improve quality of life in postmenopausal women with insomnia, according to researchers in Brazil.
“The practice of yoga has been proven to have positive effects on reducing insomnia,” the researchers wrote. “Studies have also shown its effects on reducing climacteric symptoms. To date, however, no studies that evaluate the effects of yoga on postmenopausal women with a diagnosis of insomnia in a randomized clinical trial have been conducted.”
This randomized trial included 44 postmenopausal women aged 50 to 65 years who were not undergoing hormone therapy. The women had an apnea-hypopnea index of less than 15 and a diagnosis of insomnia. Women with uncontrolled clinical illnesses such as systemic arterial hypertension, diabetes or cancer were excluded.
The women were randomly assigned to one of three groups: control, passive stretching and yoga. The passive stretching group had two 1-hour sessions per week of passive stretching. The yoga group had two 1-hour sessions a week of yoga with a yoga teacher. The women completed questionnaires before the intervention and after the 4-month study to evaluate quality of life, anxiety and depression, climacteric symptoms, insomnia severity, daytime sleepiness and stress.
At the end of the study, the participants in the yoga group had significantly lower post-treatment scores for climacteric symptoms and insomnia severity and higher scores for quality of life and resistance phase of stress vs. the control group. The insomnia severity was also lower in the yoga group compared with the passive stretching group.
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