Heartfulness meditation improves loneliness and sleep in physicians and advance practice providers during COVID-19 pandemic

ABSTRACT

Objective: Unprecedented work pressures and social isolation during the COVID-19 pandemic may worsen loneliness and sleep problems in health-care professionals. Heartfulness meditation has been shown to improve burnout and sleep. In the current study, the effects of remote Heartfulness meditation in improving loneliness and sleep quality were measured. Methods: Physicians and advance practice providers were randomly assigned to receive either daily Heartfulness Meditation program or no intervention (control group) in a prospective four-week randomized control study design. UCLA loneliness and PSQI scores were collected at baseline and after the program duration of 4 weeks. The study was retrospectively registered with trial Number, ISRCTN85787008 (8 January 2021). Results: Of the 155 subjects enrolled in the study, 50% were lonely and 97% had sleep problems. Attrition rate was 36%. Among those who completed the study, the mean UCLA loneliness scores decreased from 42.1 to 39.4 in the Heartfulness group (N = 40, p = 0.009) and 42.2 to 41.15 in the control group (N = 57, p = 0.254). The mean PSQI scores decreased from 10.75 to 9.14 in the Heartfulness group (N = 41, p = 0.001) and 9.41 to 8.87 in the control group (N = 58, p = 0.122). Younger participants aged 30 and under had higher loneliness and sleep problems. Conclusions: The current study is one of the first attempts to assess loneliness and sleep problems among physicians and advance practice providers during COVID-19 pandemic in the US. A significant burden of loneliness and sleep problems was identified. An improvement of sleep and loneliness was noted with the practice of Heartfulness meditation. This remote intervention might be a useful tool to be explored in larger studies.

KEYWORDS:

• Physicians
• residents
• advance practice providers
• loneliness
• sleep
• UCLA loneliness scale
• PSQI
• burnout
• heartfulness
• meditation
• relaxation

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank Dr. Ronald Benenson, Ms. Kate Kelly, Ms. Jessica Rowe, Ms. Melissa Schlenker and Dr. Jennifer Martin from the EMIG Research Center, WellSpan Health for their immense help with the study design, obtaining necessary permissions and guidance throughout this project.

Transparency

Declaration of funding

No funding was received to produce this article

Declaration of financial/other relationships

The authors declare no financial conflicts of interest. Dr. Jayaram Thimmapuram is a volunteer Heartfulness Trainer and a speaker for the CME sessions offered through Heartfulness Institute with no financial benefits. Mrs. Divya Madhusudhan is a volunteer of the Heartfulness Institute.

Peer reviewers on this manuscript have no relevant financial or other relationships to disclose.

Declaration of interest

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.