Impact of the heartfulness program on stress and sleep among healthcare professionals: Pre experimental study

Autor: Deepak Kumar, Kusum K. Rohilla, Pratima Gupta, Vasantha C. Kalyani, Rajan Kumar
Jazyk: angličtina
Rok vydání: 2024
Předmět:
Zdroj: Journal of Family Medicine and Primary Care, Vol 13, Iss 5, Pp 1734-1738 (2024)
Druh dokumentu: article
ISSN: 2249-4863
2278-7135
DOI: 10.4103/jfmpc.jfmpc_1434_23
Popis: Background: Healthcare professionals (HCPs) worldwide suffer from stress and poor sleep and the COVID-19 pandemic has further raised these issues. This study sought to determine whether HCPs had reduced stress and increased sleep quality while participating in a heartfulness meditation program. Subjects and Methods: For a 2-month (8 weeks) heartfulness meditation program, we included 41 individuals in a prospective one-group pretest post-test intervention design from February 2023 to April 2023. Scores on the Perceived Stress Scale and Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index were gathered at baseline and 8 weeks. Forty-one (76%) of the 54 participants completed this study for 8 weeks. Results: Results showed a substantial decline in stress (preintervention mean ± standard deviation [SD] = 20.54 ± 4.46; postintervention mean ± SD = 18.42 ± 6.14; t-value = -1.947 [0.05*]) and improvement in sleep quality (preintervention mean ± SD = 6.63 ± 3.82; postintervention mean ± SD = 5.29 ± 2.44) among HCPs after following this 8-week heartfulness meditation program. In the end, a substantial decrease in perceived stress score and an improvement in the sleep quality index was found. Conclusion: Additionally, practicing heartfulness meditation may aid in developing the traits of empathy, acceptance, and inner serenity. We draw the conclusion that more extensive research is required to fully understand the impact of heartfulness meditation practice.
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