Yoga Shows Promise in Helping Women with Insomnia after Menopause

Yoga May Help With Insomnia

Many women experience problems with sleep after menopause, which happens around the age of 50.  A small study conducted by Afonso and colleagues and published in Menopause: The Journal of The North American Menopause Society shows that yoga may help with insomnia after menopause.  In the study, 44 women age 50 to 65 years who were diagnosed with insomina and were post-menopausal were randomly assigned to one of three groups–a control group, a stretching group, or a yoga group.  All three groups were provided calcium supplements.  The women who were in the control group were put on a wait list for the yoga class, which started after the study ended.  The women who received the passive stretching did two 1-hour stretching sessions each week.  The women who were in the yoga group were provided two 1-hour yoga sessions each week.  The yoga was based on yogasana and Tibetian techniques.  The specific yoga approach was intended for menopause and used stretching positions, strong and fast breathing, and directed relaxation. At the end of four months, both the women who were provided passive stretching and the women who were provided yoga had less insomnia than when they started, as measured by self-report surveys.  However, only the yoga group had less insomnia than the control group after four months of follow-up, indicating that the yoga was more helpful in reducing insomnia.

The study’s findings should be taken with a grain of salt, as the study was done with a very small number of women. More research should be done with larger studies to draw better conclusions regarding whether yoga should be recommended to help women cope with insomnia after menopause.

From your experience, has yoga helped you sleep?

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