Mindfulness Meditation For
Sleep Disturbances And Insomnia

Insomnia and chronic sleep disturbances in the general population range from 9 to 12%. Research has shown that fewer hours of sleep is closely linked to frustration, short temper, poor mood, and more depressive symptoms.

As reviewed in the section on stress and the brain, negative emotions cause stress, and more stress causes more negative emotions. Less sleep tends to cause more stress and more stress leads to less sleep.

Studies show that over 50% of women with breast cancer suffer from insomnia symptoms, and 19% meet the criteria for clinical insomnia. Cancer patients actually report more dissatisfaction with treatment for their symptoms of stress than for their cancer. Up to 41% use relaxation and meditation techniques as complementary treatment.

Let us now review couple of studies on mindfulness meditation for sleep disturbances in cases of cancer.

A study of an 8-week mindfulness-based program's impact on sleep, mood, stress, and fatigue symptoms (Carlson et al., 2005) shows that overall sleep disturbances were significantly reduced and sleep quality improved.

Participants initially slept for 6 hours per night and after program completion reported sleeping for about 7 hours per night – a clinically significant increase of 1 hour.

There was also a significant reduction in stress, fatigue, irritability and mood disturbances

Another study, this one a systematic review of 10 studies involving mindfulness-based stress reduction, found significant improvements in cancer patients' mood, sleep quality, and stress-levels (Smith et al., 2004). In one included follow-up study, a maintained effect was found 6 months after program completion.

There were no side-effects reported.

References

• Carlsen LE, Garland SN (2005): Impact of mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) on sleep mood, stress and fatigue symptoms in cancer outpatients. International Journal of Behavioral Medicine; 2(4):278-85
• Smith J, Richardson J, Hoffman C, Pilkingtom K (2005): Mindfulness-based stress reduction as supportive therapy in cancer care: systematic review. Journal of Advanced Nursing 52(3):315-27