TY - JOUR AU - Kumar, Abhishek AU - S, Venkatesh PY - 2021/02/02 Y2 - 2021/04/10 TI - Effect of Short-Term Practice of Bhramari Pranayama on Sleep Quality and Perceived Stress in School Students JF - International Journal of Physiology JA - ijop VL - 9 IS - 1 SE - DO - 10.37506/ijop.v9i1.2603 UR - http://ijop.net/index.php/ijop/article/view/2603 SP - 1-6 AB - <p>Background: In today’s highly-competitive era of modern education, students are constantly exposed<br>to ‘high’ academic stress. Stress, in turn, affects sleep quality. Deterioration in sleep quality adversely<br>affects overall health. Yogic breathing exercise i.e., ‘Pranayama’ practice is an easy yet effective way to<br>maintain sound physical and mental health. Traditional yogic literatures particularly recommend ‘Bhramari’<br>Pranayama (the ‘Humming Bee’ breath) for effectively reducing stress and improving quality of sleep. Due<br>to lack of specific scientific evidence to support these benefits from Bhramari Pranayama, this study was<br>undertaken to evaluate the effect of Bhramari Pranayama practice on sleep quality and perceived stress in<br>school students.<br>Objectives: To evaluate the effect of short-term (6 weeks) practice of Bhramari Pranayama on Sleep Quality<br>and Perceived Stress in school students.<br>Methodology: After obtaining Ethical clearance, 60 school students of class X were randomly selected for<br>the study. Assent from participants and written informed consent from their parents were obtained. After<br>history-taking and general physical examination, ‘baseline’ data including assessment of Sleep quality and<br>Perceived stress were obtained using the PSQI (Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index) and PSS (Perceived Stress<br>Scale) questionnaires respectively. Thereafter, Bhramari Pranayama was practiced by the students for 6<br>weeks. Finally, at the end of 6 weeks sleep quality and perceived stress were re-assessed using the above<br>questionnaires. Pre- and post- Bhramari pranayama data were compared and analysed using descriptive<br>statistics and Student’s t-test; p-value &lt;0.05 was considered as statistically significant.<br>Results: Post Bhramari Pranayama practice, there was significant improvement in Sleep quality &amp; a<br>significant reduction in Perceived stress (p-value&lt;0.05).<br>Conclusion: Hence, just a few weeks practice of Bhramari Pranayama significantly improves sleep quality<br>and reduces perceived stress.<br><br></p> ER -