2013 Volume 12 Issue 1 Pages 85-94
We examined the effects of foot bath use in inpatients complaining of sleeplessness, particularly in those with difficulty in falling asleep and nocturnal awakening.
We measured subjective sleep quality, heart rate, heart rate variability (high-frequency power (HF) and ratio of low-frequency power to high-frequency power (LF/HF)), and factors associated with sleep and awakening with a wrist activity meter.
With regard to subjective sleep quality of the inpatients (four men, 53.0±9.4 years old) that complained of difficulty falling asleep, total scores of subjective opinion regarding sleep and “falling asleep and sleep maintenance” were significantly higher in the footbath treatment (FB) groups compared to the non-footbath treatment control (CT) (p ＜0.05). Furthermore, heart rate was significantly lower in the FB than CT groups after lights out and after falling sleep (p ＜0.05), and LF/HF which expresses sympathetic nervous activity was significantly lower in FB than CT after falling sleep (p ＜0.05). The heart rate of the inpatients (four men, 57.8±10.3 years old) who complaining of nocturnal awakening was significantly lower in FB than CT after lights out and after falling sleep (p ＜0.05), but the difference in LF/HF between the two groups was not statistically significant. HF expressing parasympathetic nerve activity was significantly higher in FB than CT after lights out (p ＜0.05).
The results of this study indicated that footbath treatment was more effective against sleeplessness in inpatients with difficulty falling asleep than in those with nocturnal awakening.
