The Effectiveness of Mindfulness-Based Group Counseling on Sleep Quality and Rumination in Older People

The present study aimed to examine the effect of mindfulness-based group counseling on sleep quality and rumination of older men in Isfahan.

The present study was quasi-experimental with a pretest-posttest design and a control group. The statistical population consisted of 30 elderly retirees of the Social Security Organization in Isfahan in 2019 and they had obtained higher scores in rumination questionnaire by Nolen-Hoeksema and Morrow (1990) and Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) (1989) and we put them randomly into two 15-individual experimental and control groups. The experimental group received the intervention of mindfulness techniques for eight 90-minute sessions, and the results were analyzed using univariate analysis of covariance (ANCOVA).

It was found that teaching mindfulness techniques decreased rumination (P=0.007, F=13.99) and improved sleep quality (P=0.001, F=8.41) in the older people of the experimental group.

It seems that reducing sleep quality decreased the quality of life for older people; hence, teaching methods such as mindfulness in addition to the reduction of rumination could be effective in improving the quality of sleep in older people.