Date Available

4-29-2024

Year of Publication

2024

Degree Name

Doctor of Nursing Practice

Advisor

Dr. Holly Stith

Committee Member

Dr. Andrew Makowski

Co-Director of Graduate Studies

Dr. Connie Workman

Abstract

Background: College students have poor sleep quality due to a newfound sense of freedom, exposure to new influences, or poor sleep hygiene (Dinis & Barganca, 2018). Specifically, evidence supports a correlation between sleep latency in onset or lack of nighttime sleep and increased anxiety (Dinis & Barganca, 2018). Yoga has been shown to decrease anxiety, stress symptoms, and depression (Mullen et al., 2021). Teaching yoga techniques and encouraging routine yoga practice to college students may improve sleep quality and decrease anxiety.

Purpose: This project's purpose was to evaluate the effect of yoga education and videos on sleep quality and anxiety symptoms among undergraduate college students.

Methods: This was a quasi-experimental one-group pre-test, post-test design. Participants were provided a one-time educational in-person yoga session along with a recorded yoga video for use over four weeks. Data was collected using standardized screening tools to measure anxiety symptoms (GAD-7) and sleep quality (PSQI). Students were asked to keep a log of how often they practiced yoga over the four-week intervention period. The evaluation of the intervention was analyzed using descriptive statistics.

Results: Among the students who participated, both the generalized anxiety disorder (GAD-7) scores and the Pennsylvania Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) were improved overall following the four-week yoga intervention, noting a decrease in anxiety symptoms and an improvement in sleep quality. There was not a statistically significant decrease in mean scores for the GAD-7 (p=0.083), but results showed an overall decrease post-intervention (10.3; SD 3.4) compared to pre-intervention (15.5; SD 3.3). There was not a statistically significant decrease in mean scores for the PSQI (p=0.37), but mean scores did improve from pre-intervention (10.5; SD 3.3) to post-intervention (8.5; SD 2.4) with improvements in all subcategories except sleep duration, which was unchanged (Table 2).

Conclusion: Results suggest that teaching yoga techniques and encouragement of regular yoga practice may reduce symptoms of anxiety and improve sleep quality in undergraduate students. Future research may consider implementing a yoga intervention with a larger sample of undergraduate students to further examine the impact on quality of sleep and symptoms of anxiety in this population.

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