Yoga and physical therapy(PT) are effective approaches to treating co-occurring sleep disturbance and back pain while reducing the need for medication, a new study suggests.
Published in the Journal of General Internal Medicine, the research from Boston University in US, showed significant improvements in sleep quality lasting 52 weeks after 12 weeks of yoga classes or 1-on-1 PT, which suggests a long-term benefit of these non-pharmacologic approaches.
In addition, participants with early improvements in pain after six weeks of treatment were three and a half times more likely to have improvements in sleep after the full, 12-week treatment, highlighting that pain and sleep are closely related.