Mindfulness-based stress reduction can help lower depression while boosting sleep quality and emotional regulation in older adults, a new study finds.
Also known as MBSR, the technique teaches people to accept experiences as they are instead of denying or rejecting unpleasant experiences. It also teaches people to be aware of themselves and how they react to unpleasant experiences. Previous studies on older adults using MBSR have shown it can lower depression, improve physical well-being, decrease loneliness, reduce stress and anxiety, and enhance sleep problems, the authors pointed out.
As part of the study published on Tuesday in BMC Public Health, 66 older adults from Iran who were depressed were split into two groups. One group underwent an eight-week training in MBSR, devoting 90 minutes a week to the training along with exercises to practice. The other group didn’t receive training. The researchers used different scales to gauge depression, emotional regulation and sleep quality. All of the responses were self-reported by individuals in the study.
Some people withdrew from the experiment, leaving 30 people in the intervention group and 30 people in the control group. About 60% of people in each group were women, and there weren’t any major age differences between groups.
According to the results, people in the intervention group had reduced depression symptoms, improvements in emotional regulation and improvements in sleep quality.
“Caregivers and psychotherapists of nursing homes can use care programs such as MBSR program to improve the physical and mental condition of the elderly,” the authors wrote.
“Mindfulness-based interventions familiarize the individual with psychological problems and coping mechanisms, and by neutralizing the effects of some problems and disorders, they can help improve physiological and psychological functioning,” the authors added.
MBSR may do the trick for depression, anxiety and sleep, but a report of a randomized trial out in 2022 found that it didn’t have a significant impact on improving cognitive function in older adults.
