| Insomnia is the most common sleep disorder characterized by difficulty falling or staying asleep or no restorative sleep for at least one month. The present pharmacological and non-pharmacological interventions pose several challenges to both treatment providers and patients. Consequently, there is a need for alternative treatments that are easily administered and readily accepted, with long-term efficacy and low-cost. This study evaluated the effects of practicing four pranayama techniques and sleep hygiene instructions on primary insomnia for eight weeks. Eligible adult participants were recruited from the general population and randomly assigned to the treatment group (n = 21) or a wait-list control group (n = 21). The treatment group performed the pranayama techniques along with sleep hygiene while the control group practiced only the sleep hygiene. Sleep quality, insomnia severity, total sleep time, sleep efficiency, quality of life, and level of mindfulness were assessed at pre-treatment, mid-treatment, and post-treatment. The treatment and control groups both improved similarly from pre-to-post-treatment with comparable slopes of change on all outcome variables. While a larger proportion of the participants in the treatment groups showed improvements on sleep quality (62% vs. 52.4%), total sleep time (62% vs. 47.6%), sleep efficiency (66.7% vs. 38%), and quality of life (physical = 71.4% vs. 66.7%, and mental = 66.7% vs. 43%). The control group showed larger improvements in insomnia severity (43% vs. 38.1%) as evidenced by the cut-off scores on the respective outcome measures. However, none of these group differences was statistically significant. Implications of future research are discussed. |
