A Secondary Analysis of Sleep Quality Changes in Older Adults From a Randomized Trial of an MBSR Program
Journal of Applied Gerontology August 10, 2016 Autumn M. Gallegos, J. Moynihan, Wilfred R. Pigeon
A secondary analysis of a randomized trial found that Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) was associated with improved sleep quality in healthy older adults who had baseline sleep disturbances. Among participants with Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) scores above 5, MBSR produced a small but significant improvement in overall sleep compared to a waitlist control, while those with scores of 10 or higher showed a medium-sized significant improvement. The study suggests that MBSR may benefit older adults with more pronounced sleep problems, though effects were not observed across the entire sample.