Effect of jaw relaxation on sleep quality in patients with myocardial infarction

Poor sleep quality is one of the common problems in patients with myocardial infarction that can affect on quality of life in these patients. The current study aimed to determine the effect of jaw relaxation on sleep quality in patients with myocardial infarction.
This study was a quasi-experimental study. Population was the patients with myocardial infarction reffered to hospitals in Saveh in 2015. 68 Patients were selected through purposive sampling and were randomly allocated into two groups of intervention and control..Patients in intervention group perform the jaw relaxation techniques 5 times a day for 20 minutes and for a month. While the patients in the control group only received routine treatment. The data were collected through using the individual characteristics form and the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index before and 1 month after the intervention. Data were analyzed by using SPSS19, Fisher's exact tests, chi-square, paired t-test and independent t-test.
The mean scores of quality of sleep before the intervention in intervention group was (14.52± 1.39) and in the control group was (14.32 ± 1.29), while after the intervention these values was reduced respectively to (12.38 ± 1.49) and (14.02 ± 2.4) (p=0.001). According to independent T-test, there was a significant difference between the two groups (p=0.001).
The results showed that the use of jaw relaxation techniques improves the sleep quality in patients with myocardial infarction. Due to the simplicity and low cost of this method, it can be used as a non-pharmacological method.