This article is more than 5 years old. Information may no longer be current.

Group-based meditation associated with better sleep in older adults

Meditation may be linked to improved quality of sleep and a decline in daytime sleep-related impairments in adults aged 55 years and older, according to a recently published study.

“According to our findings, mindfulness meditation appears to have a role in addressing the prevalent burden of sleep problems in older adults by remediating their moderate sleep complaints and deficits in daytime functioning with short-term effects sizes commensurate with the status quo of clinical treatment approaches for sleep problems,” Michael R. Irwin, MD, Cousins Center for Psychoneuroimmunology, Semel Institute for Neuroscience and department of psychiatry and biobehavioral sciences, David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California, and colleagues wrote.

Michael Irwin

Irwin and colleagues conducted a randomized controlled trial to determine the effectiveness of mindful meditation among older adults (mean age = 66.27 years) with sleep trouble. Participants were randomly assigned into one of two intervention groups.

The mindful meditation group (n = 24) participated in six 2-hour Mindful Awareness Practices for Daily Living (MAPs) courses. Sessions consisted of exercises in mindful sitting meditation, mindful eating, appreciation meditation, friendly/loving-kindness meditation, mindful walking, and mindful movement.

The second group (n = 25) received Sleep Hygiene Education (SHE), which consisted of six weekly 2-hour sessions. The course covered sleep biology, characteristics of healthy and unhealthy sleep, sleep problems, stress biology and stress reduction, self-monitoring of sleep behavior, relaxation methods for improving sleep and weekly behavioral sleep hygiene strategies.

Results demonstrated that participants in the MAPs group had significant improvement on the Pittsburg Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) compared with those receiving SHE (mean 2.8-point improvement for MAPs vs. 1.1 points for SHE). MAPS participants also showed significant improvement regarding insomnia symptoms, depression, fatigue interference and fatigue severity immediately following the intervention (P = .005), compared with the SHE group.

“Formalized mindfulness-based interventions have clinical importance by possibly serving to remediate sleep problems in older adults in the short-term, and this effect appears to carry over into reducing sleep-related daytime impairments that have implications for quality of life,” Irwin and colleagues wrote.

Disclosure: The researchers report no relevant financial disclosures.