Efficacy of yoga nidra compared with sleep education on sleep quality among medical students at a tertiary healthcare centre in Rishikesh, Uttarakhand, India: protocol for a randomised controlled trial.

Abstract

Sleep, a fundamental element of health, accounts for about one-third of our lives, and is as crucial as nutrition and exercise. Among university students, medical students are one subset that seems particularly susceptible to sleep problems, perhaps due to the length and complexity of their studies and being under a high level of stress. Yoga Nidra has been studied as a therapeutic intervention for various medical conditions. The aim of the study is to evaluate the efficacy of short-duration Yoga Nidra for improving sleep quality in students at a tertiary healthcare centre in Rishikesh, Uttarakhand. A two-group parallel randomised controlled trial will be conducted among undergraduate medical students with a Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) score >5. Efficacy of short-duration Yoga Nidra in comparison to sleep education will be evaluated for PSQI scores, heart rate variability, respiratory rate, pulse rate, body mass index, blood pressure, random blood sugar, lipid profile, interleukin 6, salivary cortisol, generalised anxiety disorder and depressive disorder. The intervention will be pre-recorded with the duration of 12 min. The intervention group participants will receive three sessions per week for 4 weeks. The sample size is 160 students. All analyses will follow the intention-to-treat approach using SPSS V.26. Descriptive statistics, test of associations, parametric and/or non-parametric methods (as appropriate) will be used to assess within and between group changes. The Institutional Ethics Committee (All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Rishikesh) has approved the study (#AIIMS/ie,C/22/231) and the trial has been prospectively registered in Clinical Trials Registry-India: CTRI/2022/07/044426. The results will be published in a peer-reviewed journal. CTRI/2022/07/044426.