EFFECT OF YOGA ON QUALITY OF SLEEP IN THERAPY
PARTICIPANTS FOLLOWING A SEVEN DAYS YOGA CAMP

SARAVANAN K., Post Graduate Student
Swami Vivekananda Yoga Research Foundation, Bangalore, India

The present study evaluated the effect of yoga on the quality of sleep in therapy participants who attended a seven day non-residential yoga camp. 26 patients with different ailments whose age range was from 14 to 73 years took part in the study. The yoga practices included loosening practices, physical postures (asana), relaxation techniques, voluntarily regulated breathing (pranayama), meditation and lectures on yoga philosophy for three hours per day. They were evaluated using a sleep rating questionnaire (SRC) on the first and seventh day of yoga camp. There was a significant decrease in the frequency of waking up in the night (p<0.05), increase in the feeling of being rested in the morning (p<0.05) and a decrease in day time sleep (p<0.05) following yoga (Wilcoxon paired signed ranks test). There was no significant change in the time taken to fall asleep and in the total number of hours slept after yoga. It is concluded from the results obtained that yoga helps to improve the quality of sleep.

EFFECT OF YOGIC RELAXATION TECHNIQUES TO INFLUENCE
THE RANDOM EVENT GENERATOR (REG) ON
CORONARY ARTERY BYPASS GRAFTING (CABG) PATIENTS

GHANSHYAM S.T., Regd. Ph.D. Scholar
Swami Vivekananda Yoga Research Foundation, Bangalore, India

To find out the effect of Yogic Relaxation Techniques (YRT) on coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) patients to influence Random Event Generator (REG) with psychological questionnaire. Sixty subjects with Coronary Artery Disease in the age range of 35-65 years, posted for CABG surgery were randomly allocated into Yoga and Control with their signed informed consent. The recordings for both the groups were taken on the pre-operative day, on the 8th post-operative day and on the 45th day after their discharge from the hospital. Each session consisted of 10 trials of 'PRE' followed by 10 trials of 'DURING' and 10 trials of 'POST'. The REG device was connected to a laptop, placed at a few inches away from the subject. The mean values from the REG before, during and post were analyzed using SPSS version (10.00).The results showed significant changes between YRT and RT sessions in the 'During-During' (p<0.001) and 'Post-Post' (p<0.001) phases of 1st day and on the 8th day between 'Pre-Pre' (p<0.001) and 'During-During' phases (p=0.016, Independent Sample Test). A significant change is seen between the 'During-During' (p=0.006) of 1st and 8th day and (p=0.001) of 1st and 45th day and 'Post-Post' (p=0.01) in the yoga group whereas the Control group showed a change of (p=0.06) and (p<0.001) in the 'Pre-Pre' of 1st and 45th and 8th and 45th day and between the 'During-During' phase of 8th and 45th day (p<0.05,paired t test). Positive affect is improved by 66.47% and negative affect is reduced to 45.01% after their sixth week of the practice of YRT. The correlation between the REG values and the Questionnaire values were checked but the values did not correlate. Yogic Relaxation Techniques appear to be an effective tool in cardiac rehabilitation thus improving the capacity to influence REG (PK) power.

A COMPARISON OF VISUAL PERCEPTION IN THREE GROUPS
DEFFERING IN THEIR EXPERIENCE OF YOGA

JOJO K.G., Post Graduate Student
Swami Vivekananda Yoga Research Foundation, Bangalore, India

Earlier studies have shown that the degree of optical illusion decreases after one month of yoga practice. In the present study the degree of optical illusion was assessed using Muller-Lyer lines in three groups of eighteen subjects each. Group one consisted of people who had been practicing yoga for more than one year, the second group was of people had been practicing yoga for one month and the third group was people who were novices to yoga practices. The average age of group one was twenty five, group two was twenty eight and group three was fifty three. The test for differences between three groups were analyzed using ANOVA test using statistical package SPSS (version 10.0) with planned comparisons of group one with group two and three. For increment trials group one (p<0.05) has shown a significant difference from group three. For decrement trials group one (p<0.05) has shown a significant difference from group two. Hence the results suggest that for people who have been practicing yoga for more than one year, the error of optical illusion is less in comparison to those with lesser durations of practice.