The effect of progressive muscle relaxation on the management of fatigue and quality of sleep in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: A randomized controlled clinical trial.

OBJECTIVE: To assess the effect of progressive muscle relaxation (PMR) on fatigue and sleep quality of patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) stages 3 and 4. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The pretest posttest clinical trial recruited 91 patients COPD grades 3 and 4. Following random assignment of subjects, the treatment group (n = 45) performed PMR for eight weeks and the control group (n = 46) received routine cares. At baseline and after the intervention, fatigue and sleep quality was assessed. Data obtained were analyzed in SPSS. RESULTS: It was determined that PMR decreased patients' fatigue level and improved some sleep quality subscales including subjective sleep quality, sleep latency, sleep duration and habitual sleep efficiency, but no improvement was found in global sleep quality and other sleep subscales. CONCLUSION: An eight-week home-based PMR program can be effective in reducing fatigue and improving certain subscales of sleep quality in patients with COPD stages 3,4. (IRCT2016080124080N3).