Tai Chi and Sleep Quality
July 14th, 2010
The Question:
Can Tai Chi improve the quality of sleep?
The Answer:
Improvement was seen in the sleep parameters of sleep quality, habitual sleep efficiency, sleep duration and sleep disturbance.
The Study:
112 healthy adult volunteers were randomly allocated to either Tai Chi Chih or to health education. Participants were 59 to 86 years old. Tai Chi was practiced for 40 minutes, 3 times a weeks, for 16 weeks. Tai Chi Chih is a set of 19 movements and 1 pose.
Sleep quality was assessed after 25 weeks. Sleep quality was measured by the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI).
Michael R. Irwin, Richard Olmstead, and Sarosh J. Motivala
Sleep. 2008 July 1. Free full text.
