Qigong for Sleep
This meta-analysis considered 444 studies initially, from both English and Chinese databases.
Eventually 24 studies, published from 2014-2018, qualified for the study. 1858 adults participated in 8-26 week trial periods.
Sleep is being recognized as crucial to our health and well-being. The article argued that poor sleep is “a universal issue in modern society, causing insidious physical and psychological disorders.”
At least 25% of adults report sleep complaints. The social cost is found in work-absenteeism and reduced productivity.
This meta-analysis found that Tai Chi Chuan can be effective in treating sleep disorder. As the report stated: “Tai Chi Chuan elicited moderate improvements in subjective sleep quality.” The effect was found to be greater with Asian populations than western populations.
The optimal time of Tai Chi Chuan practice to be most effective was 60-90 minutes per session. While the results were encouraging, more thorough studies must be conducted in order to optimize Tai Chi Chuan practices amidst varying populations.
Dr. Charles Garrettson, Term Professor of Religious Studies, George Mason UniversityTai Chi Chuan for Subjective Sleep Quality: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials
https://www.hindawi.com/journals/ecam/2020/4710527/Yuhao Si, Cenyi Wang, Heng Yin, Jinghui Zheng, Yang Guo, Guihua Xu, Yong Ma
"Tai Chi Chuan for Subjective Sleep Quality: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials", Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine, vol. 2020, Article ID 4710527, 19 pages, 2020.
https://doi.org/10.1155/2020/4710527 Volume 2020 |Article ID 4710527 | https://doi.org/10.1155/2020/4710527
Abstract
Background. This review aims to investigate the efficacy of Tai Chi Chuan on subjective sleep quality among adults.
Methods. We systematically searched PubMed, Embase, Cochrane Library, Scopus, CNKI (China National Knowledge Infrastructure), and the Wanfang Database from their inception to August 2019 and identified 25 eligible studies that were published in both English and Chinese.
Results. 24 out of 25 studies were identified to be high-quality studies according to the PEDro scale. The pooled results confirmed that Tai Chi Chuan elicited moderate improvements in subjective sleep quality (SMD = −0.512, 95% CI [−0.767, −0.257], ). Notably, Tai Chi Chuan yielded more significant effects on sleep quality among the healthy population (SMD = −0.684, 95% CI [−1.056, −0.311], ) than the clinical population (SMD = −0.395, 95% CI [−0.742, −0.047], ) and more benefits among the Asian population (SMD = −0.977, 95% CI [−1.446, −0.508], ) than the American population (SMD = −0.259, 95% CI [−0.624, 0.105], ).
After controlling the methodological quality of studies, it has been noted that Asians could achieve the most significant sleep-promoting benefit when Tai Chi Chuan was practiced between 60 and 90 min per session.
Conclusions. Available data implied that subjective sleep quality was improved via Tai Chi training, but more thorough studies must be executed to ascertain our findings and optimize Tai Chi practices accordingly toward various populations.
