Background & objectives: Sleep in older persons is characterized by decreased ability to stay asleep, resulting in fragmented sleep and reduced daytime alertness. Pharmacological treatment of insomnia in older persons is associated with hazardous side effects. Hence, the present study was designed to compare the effects of Yoga and Ayurveda on the self rated sleep in a geriatric population.

Methods: Of the 120 residents from a home for the aged, 69 were stratified based on age (five- year intervals) and randomly allocated to three groups i.e., Yoga (physical postures, relaxation techniques, voluntarily regulated breathing and lectures on yoga philosophy), Ayurveda (a herbal preparation), and Wait-list control (no intervention). The groups were evaluated for self- assessment of sleep over a one week period at baseline, and after three and six months of the respective interventions.

Results: The Yoga group showed a significant decrease in the time taken to fall asleep (approximate group average decrease: 10 min, P<0.05), an increase in the total number of hours slept (approximate group average increase: 60 min, P< 0.05) and in the feeling of being rested in the morning based on a rating scale (P<0.05) after six months. The other groups showed no significant change.

Interpretation & conclusion: Yoga practice improved different aspects of sleep in a geriatric population.

Older adults spend more time in bed relative to time spent asleep . This is due to longer time taken to fall asleep, more periods of wakefulness during the night, and time spent lying awake before rising in the morning. It is well recognized that the function of sleep in everyday life is crucial to an individual’s sense of wellbeing, with a strong relationship between the quality of sleep and psychological symptoms . Hence, it is also desirable for older persons to get an adequate sleep at night, though the expectations should be based on realistic ideas of the sleep requirement and inevitable age-related changes in the sleep structure.

Pharmacological treatment of insomnia in older persons has been found to be associated with hazardous side effects such as states of confusion, psychomotor performance deficits, nocturnal falls, dysphoric mood, impaired intellectual functioning, and daytime sleepiness. . During the last two decades, a number of well documented behavioural principles for good sleep have been described and particular forms of short-term behavioural and psychological therapies have become available . Clinical interest in the possible effectiveness of such approaches has been stimulated by the fact of high co-morbidity between insomnia and other conditions which respond to psychological approaches.  These therapeutic approaches can be mainly classified into three categories: behaviour based educative methods (e.g., avoiding large amounts of coffee or heavy food just before bedtime) ; relaxation techniques (e.g., progressive muscular relaxation, briefer forms of autogenic training, and various forms of self- hypnosis); and formal psychotherapy.

Yoga is an ancient Indian science and way of life which brings about relaxation and also induces a balanced mental state . Yoga techniques include physical postures (asanas), voluntarily regulated breathing (pranayamas), meditation, and philosophical principles which help to reach a balanced mental state.  A closely related ancient Indian discipline, Ayurveda (the ‘Science of Life’, in Sanskrit), provides comprehensive knowledge about diverse aspects of health . Wide ranges of health measures are covered including massage and herbal preparations. The latter are used for healthy persons (‘rejuvenating preparations’ or rasayanas) and for therapy. In the present study on persons over the age of 60 yr we compared the effects of yoga with those of an ayurveda herbal preparation (intended to promote positive health in aged persons) on different aspects of sleep, based on their self-assessment.  This comparison of the effects of two related disciplines was planned to understand their effects individually, so as to use them with better efficiency as complementary systems, which is how these have been traditionally described.