Abstract
PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of yoga exercise invention on quality of sleep and quality of life in stroke patients. METHOD: Thirty-five stroke patients were randomly assigned to the following two groups. sixteen patients were in the experimental group (age: 56.82±9.11 yr), another nineteen patients were in the control group (age: 60.89±10.74 yr). The experimental group had performed yoga exercise twice a week for eight weeks with each session lasting 60 minutes per day, including warm-up (15 minutes), main exercise (35 minutes) and moderate stretching (10 minutes), additionally except rehabilitation courses held by the hospital. The control group had not carried out any exercise intervention except rehabilitation courses. The quality of sleep, and quality of life were tested before and after yoga exercise intervention. Analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) was applied to examine the difference between experimental and control groups on quality of sleep and quality of life. RESULT: The score of quality of sleep for stroke patients in the experimental group (↓33.2%) decreased significantly compared to that in the control group (↓8.3%) (p<.05). In addition, the score of quality of life in the experimental group (↑7.5%) increased significantly compared to that in the control group (↓2.9%) (p<.05). CONCLUSION: The result indicated that the yoga exercise intervention could improve the quality of sleep, sleep efficiency, quality of life and physical health domain in stroke patients.