Physical therapy intervention in the treatment of insomnia

Intervenção fisioterapêutica no tratamento de insônias

Abstract

Introduction: The demands from every-day-life constantly cause more and more people to suffer from insomnia, becoming a worldwide epidemic that affects 40% of the population and leads to economic and social loss. Objective: evaluate Physiotherapy as a tool to reestablish the physiologic balance and consequent sleep improvement. Method: experimental research was conducted by applying physiotherapy techniques in 31 volunteers aged between 18 and 65 years old presented with insomnia. Each volunteer was submitted to 40-minute sessions twice a week for 10 sessions. Data collection was preceded by an initial and final evaluation through a questionnaire to analyze sleep quality. Salivary cortisol levels were measured and analyzed in partnership with the Hospital Israelita Albert Einstein. Results: 55% of the participants were female with mean age of 36.27 years old (±9.42) and 45% of participants were male  with mean age of 36.10 years old (±10.77). Initially, 95% of these participants classified sleep as bad and by the end of the sessions 90% qualified sleep as good. At the beginning of the study, 80% reported the feeling of no having rested during sleep, at the end, this percentage dropped to 25%. Also, 75% of volunteers reported feeling sleepy during activities of daily living, but at the end this number dropped to 15%. Depression was reported in 35% of patients at the start of the study with total reversion by the end. Conclusion: the techniques used promoted an improvement in the volunteers’ sleep quality as well as a better daytime disposition.