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and improvement of sleep quality. They further extended their studies and reported later that short nap and moderate exercise also improve mental health in both adult and elderly subjects. We have observed that morning hour relaxation followed by meditation practices improves physical health along with mental equilibrium. The present study examined the combined effects of yogic exercises and preksha meditation on sleep quality and mental health of post-graduate students staying in the hostels. Methods :
The subjects of the study 14 adult post-graduate students of Jain Vishva Bharati Institute (21 + 4.4 years) who gave their informed consent for their participation in the study. “Intervention” includes 30 min. yogic exercise followed by 30 min. preksha meditation in early morning before sunrise for four weeks without break. In the practice of yogic exercise all the subjects we trained to practice light rejuvenating exercise for all part of the body i.e. from head to toe separately. Process practice of preksha meditation includes relaxation (kayotsarga) - 5 min. perception of breathing-10 min. and perception of bliss 10 min. All the students were allowed to lead normal routine life in their hostel. Only those students were included in the study who were showed normal sleeping pattern. The subjects physical activities were recorded using actigraphs for 1 week before and post-intervention. Actigraph datas were analysed to determine 'sleep' and 'wake' periods by applying a cole's validated algorithm to the portion of the records identified as sleep periods by the combination of sleep logs. Subjects were also asked to maintain their daily sleep-wakeful period records which was also analysed for total sleep periods. Mental helath was assessed using the Mental Health Check list/Questionnaire (GHQ).* Furthermore, after the intervention, a questionnaire mainly enquiring about subject's volition and physical health was performed. Results :
After the 'intervention' sleep efficiency increased significantly (fig. 1) demonstrating that sleep quality had improved. Furthermore, nodding in the evening decreased significantly after the 'intervention' (fig. 2). GHQ scores also decreased significantly, showing that their mental health had also improved. After the 'intervention', many of the participants answered that volition and physical health had also improved. Volition increased upto 68.9% and overall physical health improved upto 86.9% in all the subjects. Discussion :
The study's result demonstrated that proper rejuvenating exercise and meditation practice during morning hours was effective in improving
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