Sleep · Meditation

The effect of mindfulness meditation on sleep quality: a systematic review and meta‐analysis of randomized controlled trials

Rusch HL, Rosario M, Levison LM, et al. · Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 2019

This meta-analysis gathered randomized controlled trials of mindfulness meditation for people with sleep problems. It included 18 trials with 1,654 participants and analysed two kinds of comparison separately. Against established sleep treatments, mindfulness showed no difference in sleep quality, with low strength of evidence, meaning it performed about the same rather than better. Against control activities that matched time and attention, mindfulness significantly improved sleep quality, with moderate strength of evidence, both straight after the program and at follow-up. The authors suggest mindfulness meditation may help with some aspects of sleep disturbance and call for more research. A limitation is that the evidence that mindfulness is as good as established sleep treatments was rated low, so it should not be seen as a substitute for them.

Our summaries describe what each study found. They are not medical advice, and the practices at Halcyon are not a treatment for any condition.