The effect of laughter yoga exercises on anxiety and sleep quality in patients suffering from Parkinson’s disease

An  interesting study on the benefits of Laughter Yoga for those living with Parkinsons disease.

Among other activities which affect the quality of sleep in patients with

Parkinson’s disease is respiratory disorder. One of the benefits of laughter yoga

is, thus, improvement of the respiratory system. Laughter provides exercise to

the lungs and chest muscles, resulting in improved vital capacity and breathing.

In normal breathing when person is relaxed, there is a balance between

inhalation and exhalation. In the stress and disease states, not only does

breathing become more shallow and slower but the level of oxygen becomes

lowered too. There is a great amount of air that remains in the lungs. By keeping

the air in the lungs, oxygen content decreases and water vapor and carbon

dioxide levels increase. In this case, the more favorable conditions for bacterial

growth and lung infections are created.

Laughter increases ventilation and removes mucous plugs to help maintain air

exchange which increases oxygen levels in the blood. In fact, when we laugh the

air is completely expelled from the lungs and following that, carbon dioxide and

water vapor is also emitted and replaced with oxygen. The oxygen becomes

available to blood cells. The effects of laughter can benefit middle-aged people

with chronic respiratory diseases, such as emphysema, and reduce the risk of

infection and inflammation of the lungs

(Keykhai Hosseinpour, 2013)

Therefore, laughter yoga can affect quality of sleep by improving the respiratory system.

Therefore, according to the benefits of laughter yoga, which include pain relief,

muscle relaxation, reduced anxiety and depression, and improved respiratory

system function, it can be concluded that laughter yoga does significantly

improve sleep quality- either directly and indirectly- of patients with Parkinson’s

disease. The questionnaire (on sleep quality) by Peter Bourg evaluated 7 areas:

sleep quality, sleep latency, sleep duration, sleep efficiency rate, sleep

disturbances, use of sleeping pills, and daily functioning disorders

A PDF of the full article can be found.

here http://www.bmrat.org/index.php/BMRAT/article/view/200/529

and an abstract of the article can be found here

 http://www.bmrat.org/index.php/BMRAT/article/view/200

The results of the present study demonstrate that laughter yoga exercises can reduce anxiety and improve sleep quality in patients suffering from Parkinson’s disease. As a result, laughter yoga exercises may be beneficial as a complementary therapy with standard treatment methods to reduce anxiety and improve sleep quality in patients with Parkinson’s.