Yoga, exercise may not improve sleep in middle-aged women

Middle-aged women suffering from hot flashes may not experience good sleep, even after engaging in interventions such as yoga and aerobic exercises, a study has found.

Previously both yoga and aerobic exercises were known to improve sleep among middle-aged women.

The findings showed that neither yoga nor aerobic exercises had a statistically significant effect on objective measures of sleep duration or sleep quality. 

Although the women had no difficulty falling asleep, disturbed sleep was common at baseline and remained after each intervention, with women in all groups waking during the night for an average of more than 50 minutes.

"Our primary findings were that the two study interventions had no significant effects on objective sleep outcomes in midlife women with hot flashes," said lead author Diana Taibi Buchanan, associate professor at the University of Washington in Seattle.

Other approaches such as cognitive behavioural therapy for insomnia and behaviour treatments with the potential for effectively improving sleep in this population should be examined, the study suggested. 

For the study, the team involved 186 late transition and postmenopausal women with hot flashes who were between 40 and 62 years of age. 

Participants were randomised to 12 weeks of yoga, supervised aerobic exercise, or usual activity.

The results were published in the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine.