A Comparative Study of Mindfulness-Based Yoga Interventions on Stress, Sleep Quality, and Cognitive Function in University Athletes

Abstract

The heightened psychological stress, disturbed sleep patterns, and cognitive exhaustion are quite common in university athletes considered to be under the influence of the combined intensive training demands and academic loads. There is growing support of mindfulness-based yoga interventions (MBYIs) as a comprehensive method of promoting mental health, physiological and cognitive functions. Nonetheless, there is a lack of comparative evidence between various versions of MBYI. It is a research paper on the impact of two pilot MBYI programs Mindfulness-Integrated Hatha Yoga (MIHY) and Mindfulness-Based Vinyasa Flow (MBVF) on stress, sleep quality, and cognitive functioning in university athletes. NINETY randomly selected the athletes (MIHY n =30, MBVF n=30, and no intervention control n=30) and carried out an 8 week supervised program. The Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) was used to evaluate stress, Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) detected sleep quality, and Stroop, Digit Span, and Simple Reaction Times Test were used to evaluate cognitive function. Both intervention groups experienced a statistically significant reduction in stress levels and increases in the sleep quality in comparison to the control group (p < 0.05), and MIHY caused the largest change in PSS scores (−32.8%). Both MBYI groups showed improved cognitive outcomes, but MBVF showed better improvements in executive attention and processing speed whereas MIHY showed better improvement in working memory. Altogether, the results suggest that mindfulness-based yoga interventions are cost-effective and available approaches to boosting psychological resilience, sleep patterns, and cognitive functioning in university athletes, which can be translated into a significant change in sports performance and athlete health programs.