Effects of 4-Day Online Yoga on Ballistocardiography Based Sleep & HRV in Indian Medical Professionals vs Randomized Waitlist Controls During COVID-19

ABSTRACT

Methods: In this ongoing randomized waitlist-controlled trial, we assessed changes in sleep,HRV & vitals, recorded overnight using a Ballistocardiography based health monitoring device. Outcomes were measured before (Day 0) & after (Day 4) a four-day online breath meditation workshop (OBMW) involving Sudarshan Kriya Yoga. 90 MPs from a tertiary care hospital in northern India were randomized equally (11) (45 participants each) to experimental (mean age 27.4±3.6) & waitlist-control (28.8±3.48) groups using computer-generated sequentially numbered opaque sealed envelopes. Results: All outcomes were found comparable at baseline. The between-groups analysis showed a highly significant increase in total sleep duration (p=0.000), duration of deep sleep (p=0.034), light sleep (p=0.000) & rapid eye movement sleep (p=0.000) with a significant reduction in respiration rate (p=0.015) for the Experimental group when compared to Controls. Within-group analysis showed highly significant improvements in HRV outcomes of SDNN (p=0.000) & RMSSD (p=0.000) & reduction in heart rate (p=0.006) for the experimental group alone. Background: Medical professionals (MPs) are facing tremendous stress, sleep deprivation & burnout due to COVID related high patient inflow& continuouswork shifts. Lowheart rate variability (HRV) & poor sleep regimes are associated with cardiomyopathy & diabetes in the long run. Yoga has strong evidence for its multifold mental & physical health benefits, yet no previous study has determined its acute effects on objective sleep measures & HRV among MPs during a pandemic. Conclusion: Maintaining a good sleep routine & high HRV result in greater cardiovascular fitness & vagal tone. Four days of OBMW might help induce psycho-physical relaxation & prove to be a feasible, cost-effective, & well-accepted tool to help build stress resilience. As the stakeholders in patient care i.e., MPs are healthy, it might further improve patient care & reduce the chance of medical errors. Further research is warranted to determine long-term effects in this regard.