Kundalini yoga for treatment of chronic insomnia: latest research
- galiayogin
- Nov 27, 2021
- 3 min read
Updated: Nov 28, 2021
Research has shown that yoga may improve the quality and quantity of sleep (1, 2, 3 and 4). A recent study published in September 2021 by the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine found that Kundalini yoga was even better than sleep hygiene measures for people with chronic insomnia (5). The participants recruited for this study had trouble falling asleep (primary sleep-onset insomnia), and their complaint had been going on for at least six months.
The participants were blindly randomized to an eight-week yoga intervention or sleep hygiene measures. The recruitment was done through ads, and there was no mention of yoga or meditation during this process to avoid any biases in the selection done to enroll people for the study.
Participants between the ages of 25 and 59 were on no psychotropic medications to be included in this study, and no medical conditions were found to cause their sleep disorder. Twenty participants were assigned to each group.
Sleep hygiene measures included the restriction of caffeinated beverages to no more than 3 cups of coffee per day and caffeine was to be avoided in the late afternoon and evening hours; they were advised to engage in regular exercise, such as walking about three days a week, but they were supposed to avoid exercise right before bed; they were also advised to minimize light and noise and to keep the room temperature comfortable. The yoga intervention involved a daily session of 45 minutes of Kundalini yoga that involved movement, breathing and meditation. They were instructed to perform the yoga routine in the evening. If, for any reason, this could not be completed in the evening, they had the option to do it at another time of the day.
Both groups had to complete sleep diaries daily starting two weeks before the intervention, throughout the eight-week intervention and during the two weeks of follow-up six months after the treatment. The completion of the daily diary was done shortly after awakening; the timing of daytime naps on the previous day had to be documented as well as the quality of nocturnal sleep, using a ten point numerical scale. Also, sleep questionnaires at baseline, at the end of the intervention and at follow-up were used to assess the response to the interventions. The primary outcome, or the measurement of efficacy of the intervention, was the SOL (sleep onset latency), which means the time they take to fall asleep. In both groups the SOL decreased after the intervention and in the follow-up after six months, but the change was more significant in the yoga group. Sleep quality was also better. It is important to highlight that at the six-month follow-up 80 percent of the yoga participants had an SOL of less than thirty minutes whereas only 40 percent of the people in the sleep-hygiene group accomplished this measure.
The power of the study is limited due to the small sample of participants and the fact that most participants were white females. The focus on the research was on primary sleep-onset insomnia, so other kinds of insomnia were not evaluated here. However, the results of this small study is consistent with previous research that suggests that yoga has the potential to benefit patients with chronic insomnia.
References:
5) Khalsa SBS, Goldstein MR. Treatment of chronic primary sleep onset insomnia with Kundalini yoga: a randomized controlled trial with active sleep hygiene comparison. J Clin Sleep Med. 2021;17(9):1841–1852.https://jcsm.aasm.org/doi/pdf/10.5664/jcsm.9320
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