REVIEW OF ASTANGA YOGA AS AN INTEGRATED INTERVENTION FOR ADULT COGNITIVE, EMOTIONAL, AND BEHAVIOURAL SELF-REGULATION
Vina Rayal
Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research) August 1, 2026 preprint DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.22745158 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Systematic review |
|---|---|
| Population | Adults |
| Interventions | Astanga Yoga mindfulness yoga pranayama Yoga Nidra breath work practices |
| Key findings | The authors conclude that evidence strongly and consistently supports Astanga Yoga-related practices for emotional self-regulation, particularly reductions in stress, anxiety, and depressive symptoms in adults, while evidence for cognitive self-regulation is emerging and less consistent and behavioural self-regulation is understudied. They argue the results are consistent with Astanga Yoga as a theoretically plausible model of yoga's multi-domain self-regulatory effects, but methodological diversity, risk of bias, and insufficient long-term follow-up prevent robust conclusions, especially for the complete eight-limb model. |
Abstract
Yoga interventions are being studied more as a means to promote psychological well-being and self-regulation in adult populations, but the wide variety of types of interventions and focus on outcomes have hampered efforts at conceptual clarity. The objective of this review is to consolidate the modern evidence (2017–2025) on Astanga Yoga as an analogue-intervention for adult cognitive, emotional, and behavioural self-regulation. The evidence was synthesized based on systematic reviews (SRs), meta-analyses, scoping reviews and controlled trials and viewed through the lens of the eight-limb Astanga model to consolidate information across yoga multi-component programmes, mindfulness yoga, pranayama, Yoga Nidra and related breath work practices. The synthesis highlights that strong and consistent support is found for emotional self-regulation improvements (more specifically reductions of stress, anxiety and depressive symptomatology in adults). Evidence for cognitive self-regulation (executive function, attentional control) is still emerging and less consistent, although behavioural self-regulation outcomes (adherence, sleep and lifestyle regulation) are understudied with limited inference from proxy measures. Methodological diversity, risk of bias and insufficient long-term follow-up prevent robust conclusions to be drawn, particularly on the complete eight-limb Astanga model. In general the results are consistent with Astanga Yoga as a theoretically plausible model of yoga’s multi-domain self-regulatory effects; further future research is warranted to test targeted integrated Astanga-based interventions based on objective criteria, common reporting and multi-domain outcomes.