Abstract
We examined the effects of footbath treatment before bedtime in inpatients complaining of sleeplessness. 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.
Heart rate and LF/HF, which express sympathetic nervous activity in inpatients (five males and four females) with sleeplessness, showed a significantly different time course by two way ANOVA (P ＝0.017 and P ＝0.035) . In the footbath treatment (FB) groups, a decrease of graded heart rate and a decrease of the sympathetic nervous activity were shown. However, in the non-footbath treatment control (CT) groups, those changes were not seen. Furthermore, with regard to subjective sleep quality of the inpatients, “falling asleep and sleep maintenance” (P ＝0.017) and “sleep times” (P ＝0.018) were significantly higher in the FB groups compared to the CT. The results of this study indicate that foot bath treatment before bedtime ameliorates inpatients sleeplessness.
