Washington: Yoga is not only a healthy way of meditating and maintaining overall wellness, but can also better an individual’s sleep along with limiting their dependence on medicines for back pain and sleep disturbance. A new study has highlighted that Yoga and physical therapy (PT) are effective approaches to treating the aforementioned conditions while reducing the need for medication.
The research showed significant improvements in sleep quality lasting 52 weeks after 12 weeks of yoga classes or one-on-one PT, which suggests a long-term benefit of these non-pharmacologic approaches. In addition, participants with early improvements in pain after 6 weeks of treatment were three and a half times more likely to have improvements in sleep after the full, 12-week treatment, highlighting that pain and sleep are closely related.
Sleep disturbance and insomnia are common among people with chronic low back pain (cLBP). Previous research showed that 59 per cent of people with cLBP experience poor sleep quality and 53 per cent are diagnosed with insomnia disorder. Why medicines aren’t a good option is because it can have serious side effects, and risk of opioid-related overdose and death increases with use of sleep medications.
“Identifying holistic ways to treat these conditions could help decrease the reliance on these medications as well as keep patients safer and more comfortable,” said study lead, Eric Roseen, DC, MSc, a researcher in the department of family medicine at BMC.
—ANI
