Effect of yoga and aerobics exercise on sleep quality in women with Type 2 diabetes: a randomized controlled trial

Abstract

Objective: The aim of this study was investigating the effect of 12 weeks of yoga and aerobic exercise (running on a treadmill) on the sleep quality in women with Type 2 diabetes. Materials and Methods: 39 diabetic women were selected from Semnan city with the mean age of 46.85±3.35 years, weight of 69.79±17.18 kg, height of 155.03±5.00, BMI of 29.64±5.00 kg/m 2 who had a background of diabetes for 6.46±2.69 years. They were then randomly divided into yoga exercise (n=15), aerobic exercise (n=13), and control group (n=11). The exercise program was performed for 12 weeks, three sessions per each week. In order to measure the sleep quality, the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) was used. The data were analyzed by non-parametric wilcoxon and Kruskal-Wallis Test at significance level of p<0.05. Results: Overall score of sleep quality improved after six (p=0.001) and 12 (p=0.001) weeks of yoga exercise. Also, significant effect was observed after 6 weeks of aerobic exercise (p=0.039). However, the positive effect was diminished to under significant levels after 12 weeks of aerobic exercise (p=0.154). Kruskal-Wallis Test showed significant differences between yoga and aerobic groups after 12 weeks of exercise (p=0.002). No significant differences were observed in control groups in all situation. Conclusions: It can be concluded that yoga exercise is more effective in improving the sleep quality in comparison with the same course of aerobic exercise in women suffering from diabetes Type 2. Thus, yoga exercise can be suggested to these patients.

An Investigation of the Quality of Sleep in Diabetic Patients

“…Sleep as physiologic behavior and diabetes as a metabolic diseases interactively affect each other. Sleep disorders increases the incidence risk of diabetes by 4 to 8 times (2)…”

“…The diabetes disease is a chronic hyperglycemia and a disorder in the metabolism of carbohydrates, proteins, and lipids, which is caused by an increase in insulin secretion or impairment of its receptors or by both of the two conditions (2). Diabetes is the fourth most important cause of death in developed countries (3) and one of the largest problems for world health, in a way that the World Health Organization calls it a silent epidemic (4).…”

Effect of yoga on sleep quality and insomnia in women with sleep problems: a systematic review and meta-analysis

“…Of the 19 RCTs that were included in Table 1, six RCTs included healthy participants [56][57][58][59][60][61], including nurses [57], teachers [58], and women in the menopausal transition period or postmenopausal period [56,[59][60][61]. Other 13 RCTs included breast cancer patients undergoing treatment [62][63][64][65], breast cancer patients who had completed treatment [13,[66][67][68], type 2 diabetes mellitus patients [69], fibromyalgia patients [70], knee osteoarthritis patients [71], restless leg syndrome patients [72], and patients experiencing dysfunctional uterine bleeding [73].…”

“…Overall, the 19 RCTs included were conducted in the United States [13, 56, 59, 60, 62-68, 71, 72], Brazil [61,70], India [58,73], Iran [69], and China [57]. Study participants were recruited from hospitals [57, 63-67, 69, 73], outpatient clinics [61,62] and schools [58].…”

“…Of the 19 included studies in Table 1, three reported using Iyengar Yoga [13,60,72]; two reported using Hatha Yoga [68,71]; two reported using Tibetan Yoga [61,64]; two reported using Restorative Yoga [66,67]; one reported using Vini Yoga [56]; one reported using Yoga Relaxation with MindSound Resonance Technique [58]; one reported using yoga breathing exercise in warm water [70]; and only seven RCTs revealed yoga programs with postures, breathing, relaxation or mediation, without defining the specific style of yoga [57,59,62,63,65,69,73]. All RCTs included yoga postures in their yoga intervention; 16 RCTs included yoga breathing; 15 RCTs included yoga relaxation; 12 RCTs included meditation; and 7 RCTs included all contents with postures, breathing, relaxation, and meditation for the yoga intervention group [57,59,63,65,67,69,73]. The duration of yoga interventions ranged from 1 week to 24 weeks, with a median of 10 weeks; the frequency of yoga interventions ranged from one to five weekly sessions of 45 to 120 min.…”