UCLA. US: Everybody has a restless night now and again, but sleep disturbances
among the elderly are a significant medical and public health concern. An estimated 50 percent of people aged 55 and older suffer from some
form of sleep problem, including not being able to fall asleep or not
being able to stay asleep when they do. And those nighttime issues can
carry over into the day, causing fatigue, depression and a diminished
quality of life. Medications can help but they are, at best, temporary
fixes, and they can cause daytime side effects and carry the risk of
drug dependency.
All of which has created an urgent need for a way to help older adults sleep better without a pill.
Researchers at UCLA’s Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human
Behavior say they’ve found a relatively simple mind–body intervention
that fits the bill. Working with collaborators at the University of
Southern California’s Keck School of Medicine, the scientists found that
mindfulness meditation promotes sleep quality in older adults who
suffer from moderate sleep complaints.
Their research appears in the Feb. 12 online edition of the Journal of the American Medical Association, Internal Medicine.
Dating back thousands of years, the practice of mindfulness
meditation involves paying attention to — but not reacting to, judging
or being distracted by — one’s own moment-by-moment thoughts, emotions,
and physiological responses and sensations.
Mindful awareness has scientific support as a means to reduce stress,
improve attention, boost the immune system, reduce emotional reactivity
and promote a general sense of health and well-being.
Essentially, that means “staying in the present and not judging your
thoughts or observations,” said Dr. Michael Irwin, the study’s senior
author, a UCLA professor of psychiatry and director of the Cousins
Center for Psychoneuroimmunology at the Semel Institute.
Previous studies by Cousins Center researchers showed that tai chi, a
Chinese martial art based on slow movement and meditation, can improve
sleep quality in older adults. In the current study, the researchers
tested whether meditation involving mental practices alone would have
similar benefits.
The randomized control trial involved 49 volunteers 55 and older,
divided into two groups. One group completed a six-week,
two-hour-per-week program during which participants were taught about
sleep biology, sleep problems, stress biology and stress reduction;
relaxation methods for improving sleep; and modifying poor sleep habits
and establishing a bedtime routine.
The second group participated in a mindfulness meditation course of
similar duration. In addition to lectures and group discussions, weekly
sessions covered experiential mindfulness exercises, including an
“appreciation meditation” that focused on expressing gratitude, along
with mindful movement and sitting meditations.
The researchers evaluated participants’ changes in sleep quality
using the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index, a commonly used questionnaire
that assesses sleep quality and disturbances. They found that, compared
with people whose program focused only on sleep hygiene education,
participants in the mindfulness meditation group showed a greater
improvement in their quality of sleep — similar in magnitude to the
sleep improvements reported in other studies using standard behavioral
treatment or sleeping aids.
In addition to better sleep quality, the mindfulness group also
reported fewer insomnia symptoms, less fatigue and less depression than
the sleep hygiene education group.
The researchers note that more research is needed to validate the
findings and determine the longer-term effects of mindfulness meditation
on sleep.
“All of us have had sleepless nights and we’ve all experienced what
that does to us the day after,” Irwin said. “Imagine if you were living
with this day in and day out; it can be exhausting, and certainly
detrimental to your health, particularly for the elderly population. The
practice of mindfulness appears to promote a good night’s sleep.”
Other authors were Richard Olmstead and Elizabeth Breen of UCLA; and first author David S. Black and Gillian O’Reilly of USC.
The work was supported by the UCLA Older Americans Independence
Center (AG028748), the UCLA Clinical and Translational Science Institute
(UL1TR000124), the National Institute of Mental Health (5T32-MH019925,
R01-AG034588, R01-AG026364, R01-CA160245-01, R01-CA119159, R01-HL095799,
R01-DA032922-01, and P30-AG028748), the Furlotti Family Foundation, the
Petit Foundation and the Cousins Center for Psychoneuroimmunology.