A 12-week program of daily home-based mindfulness meditation combined with progressive muscle relaxation, practiced for at least half an hour, significantly improved sleep quality, reduced anxiety and depression, and enhanced quality of life in hemodialysis patients with sarcopenia and sleep disorders. Twenty-five patients in the intervention group showed better scores on sleep, anxiety, and depression measures compared to 24 controls receiving standard care. The approach is simple and unrestricted, but the study had a small sample and short follow-up.
A 12-week mindfulness meditation program lowered blood pressure and improved quality of life in patients with intradialytic hypertension during haemodialysis. In a randomized trial of 69 patients, those who practiced meditation had significantly lower systolic, diastolic, and mean arterial pressures and a lower pulse rate than those receiving standard care. Quality-of-life measures, including physical function, pain, energy, and emotional well-being, improved, but social function did not. Blood levels of homocysteine also decreased. Adverse reactions occurred in 11.76% of the meditation group versus 45.71% of the control group. Mindfulness meditation appears to be a safe, effective non-pharmacological option for managing intradialytic hypertension.