By John M. de Castro, Ph.D.
“With growing pressures at work coupled with smartphone technology, it is really difficult to ‘switch off’ because you continue to receive work-related messages in the evening. Meditation programs such as Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) have been shown to be effective in treating anxiety, insomnia, and other psychological disorders” – Ute Hülsheger
Modern society has become more around-the-clock and more complex producing considerable pressure and stress on the individual. The advent of the internet and smart phones has exacerbated the problem. The resultant stress can impair sleep. Indeed, it is estimated that over half of Americans sleep too little due to stress. As a result, people today sleep 20% less than they did 100 years ago. Not having a good night’s sleep has adverse effects upon the individual’s health, well-being, and happiness. Yet over 70 million Americans suffer from disorders of sleep and about half of these have a chronic disorder. It has been estimated that 30 to 35% of adults have brief symptoms of insomnia, 15 to 20% have a short-term insomnia disorder, and 10% have chronic insomnia
Insomnia is more than just an irritant. Sleep deprivation is associated with decreased alertness and a consequent reduction in performance of even simple tasks, decreased quality of life, increased difficulties with memory and problem solving, increased likelihood of accidental injury including automobile accidents, and increased risk of dementia and Alzheimer’s disease. It also can lead to anxiety about sleep itself. This is stressful and can produce even more anxiety about being able to sleep. About 4% of Americans revert to sleeping pills. But, these do not always produce high quality sleep and can have problematic side effects. So, there is a need to find better methods to treat insomnia. Contemplative practices have been reported to improve sleep amount and quality and help with insomnia. The importance of insomnia underscores the need to further investigate safe and effective alternatives to drugs.
In today’s Research News article “Mindfulness meditation for insomnia: A meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials.” See:
or see summary below. Gong and colleagues reviewed the published research literature on the effectiveness of mindfulness meditation on insomnia. They performed a meta-analysis on six randomized controlled trials with meditation training of 6 to 8 weeks. They found that when active control groups were included in the analysis sleep quality and total wake time was significantly improved with meditation practice. While when only studies employing wait list or attention control conditions were included, the analysis showed significant improvements in the amount of time to go to sleep, sleep efficiency, and sleep quality. Hence, the research literature reported that mindfulness meditation produced significant improvements not in amount of sleep but primarily in the quality of sleep and with meditators falling asleep faster.
How does meditation practice improve sleep? One obvious possible mechanism is by stress reduction. Meditation practice has been shown to reduce both physiological and psychological responses to stress and stress is known to interfere with sleep. Another possibility is that meditation practice is known to reduce mind wandering and intrusive thoughts which are often a problem in trying to go to sleep. Additionally, meditation practice is known to improve emotion regulation, and powerful emotions can interfere with sleep. Regardless, of the mechanism, meditation practice is inexpensive and safe, having very few adverse effects, and have many other beneficial effects in addition to improving sleep. There is not much to lose and potentially a great deal to gain.
So, improve sleep quality with meditation.
“Insomnia patients who completed MBSR were able to learn and use a variety of meditation techniques to fall asleep faster at bedtime, return to sleep sooner if awakened in the middle of the night, awaken more refreshed, and better cope with occasional episodes of sleeplessness.” – Amber Hubbling
CMCS – Center for Mindfulness and Contemplative Studies
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Study Summary
Gong H, Ni CX, Liu YZ, Zhang Y, Su WJ, Lian YJ, Peng W, Jiang CL. Mindfulness meditation for insomnia: A meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials.. J Psychosom Res. 2016 Oct;89:1-6. doi: 10.1016/j.jpsychores.2016.07.016. Epub 2016 Jul 26.
Highlights
- This meta-analysiscollates studies and provides general information on the efficacy of MM for insomnia.
- MM can contribute to modestly improving sleep parameters.
- MM may be a promising option for the treatment of insomnia.
Abstract
Background: Insomnia is a widespread and debilitating condition that affects sleep quality and daily productivity. Although mindfulness meditation (MM) has been suggested as a potentially effective supplement to medical treatment for insomnia, no comprehensively quantitative research has been conducted in this field. Therefore, we performed a meta-analysis on the findings of related randomized controlled trials (RCTs) to evaluate the effects of MM on insomnia.
Methods: Related publications in PubMed, EMBASE, the Cochrane Library and PsycINFO were searched up to July 2015. To calculate the standardized mean differences (SMDs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs), we used a fixed effect model when heterogeneity was negligible and a random effect model when heterogeneity was significant.
Results: A total of 330 participants in 6 RCTs that met the selection criteria were included in this meta-analysis. Analysis of overall effect revealed that MM significantly improved total wake time and sleep quality, but had no significant effects on sleep onset latency, total sleep time, wake after sleep onset, sleep efficiency, total wake time, ISI, PSQI and DBAS. Subgroup analyses showed that although there were no significant differences between MM and control groups in terms of total sleep time, significant effects were found in total wake time, sleep onset latency, sleep quality, sleep efficiency, and PSQI global score (absolute value of SMD range: 0.44–1.09, all p < 0.05).
Conclusions: The results suggest that MM may mildly improve some sleep parameters in patients with insomnia. MM can serve as an auxiliary treatment to medication for sleep complaints.