The Effectiveness of "Body-Centered Meditation” on Insomnia and Agitation in Alzheimer's Patients

 Alzheimer's is a progressive and debilitating disease of the brain that causes serious damage to human thoughts and memory and is associated with psychological disorders such as insomnia and agitation. This study aimed to determine the effectiveness of body-centered meditation on insomnia and agitation in Alzheimer’s patients.

The research method was semi-experimental with a pretest-posttest design and a control group. From the statistical population of patients with Alzheimer's disease in mild to moderate levels referred to clinics and Alzheimer's Association of Tehran province, 20 people were selected randomly based on inclusion criteria and assigned into experimental (n = 10) and control groups (n = 10). The research questionnaires were Morin's insomnia (1993) and Cohen-Mansfield's Agitation (1986). Meditation was administered to the experimental group in eight sessions of 90 minutes. The research data were analyzed using multivariate covariance.

The results of covariance analysis showed that post-test scores of insomnia and agitation of patients with Alzheimer's in the experimental group were significantly lower than the control group (P≤0 / 005).

 Body-centered meditation can be used to improve insomnia and agitation in Alzheimer's patients.