Impact of Yoga on Mental Health and Sleep Quality Among Mothers of Children With Intellectual Disability.

Objectives: Caring for a child with Intellectual Disability Disorder (IDD) is a tremendously stressful task for any mother, leading to poor mental health and compromised quality of life. Anxiety, depression, stress, and poor sleep quality are frequently observed in mothers with Intellectual Disability Disorder child. This study assessed the impact of a 1-month yoga intervention on anxiety, depression, stress and sleep quality in mothers of children with intellectual disabilities.

Methods: We selected 53 mothers of children with intellectual disabilities between the age of 30 and 50 years (mean age, 40.2 ± 7.1 years). Of these mothers, 28 received 1.5 hours of integrated yoga practice consisting of physical postures, breathing techniques, relaxation techniques and meditation every other day for 1 month. The remaining 25 mothers, who served as the control group, participated in a group discussion session twice a week for 1 month.

Main Outcome Measures: All mothers were assessed for anxiety and depression with the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS), stress with the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS), and sleep quality with the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) at baseline and at 1 month.

Results: Significant improvements in anxiety (-24.8%; P < .001), depression (-15.9%; P < .001), sleep quality (-25.1%; P < .05) and stress (-11.4%; P < .001) were observed after 1 month compared with baseline in the yoga group. In a similar fashion, a significant decrease in anxiety (-12.3%; P < .001), depression (-8.6%; P < .001) and sleep quality (-5.6%; P < .001) was seen in the control group as well. The between-group comparison of post-intervention scores revealed a significantly better improvement in anxiety (P <.001), depression (P < .001), perceived stress (P < .001) and sleep quality (P = .012) in the yoga group compared with the control group.

Conclusions: Our study indicates that yoga can be used as an effective intervention to improve psychopathology and sleep quality in mothers of children with intellectual disabilities. We recommend future randomized controlled trials with larger sample sizes and of longer duration to study the long-term effects of yoga.