Stress Clinical Trial
Official title:
Effects of Two Psychosocial Wellness Workshops on Sleep, Stress Management and Well-being: Exploration of Psychophysiological Mechanisms
While efficacy of Sudarshan Kriya Yoga (SKY) has been demonstrated in a number of prior studies, little is known about the effects of SKY taught as part of the Your Enlightened Side (YESplus) workshop designed for college students. Thus, this study aims to assess the effects of YESplus on well-being, including sleep patterns, and physiological stress response.
The transition from adolescence to adulthood, particularly for college students, is
accompanied by several major life changes and challenges. For many individuals, this is a
period when one moves away from home, begins interacting with different peer groups, and has
greater financial and academic responsibilities. The emotional stress associated with these
changes is correlated with less time devoted to sleep, increased alcohol intake reduced
academic performance and increased rates of anxiety disorders and/or depression.
Your Enlightened Side (plus more) (YESplus) is a life skills workshop with a strong emphasis
on breathing practices for reducing stress and increasing well-being. Additional stress
management tools including meditation, yoga, and interpersonal exercises that impart social
emotional learning skills and stress reduction strategies complement the breathing
techniques.
The central practice taught in YESplus is a unique rhythmical breathing technique called
Sudarshan Kriya. It is taught along with two preparatory breathing practices: an advanced
form of Ujjayi breathing (breathing against airway resistance) and bhastrika (forceful nasal
breathing). Collectively, these three breathing practices are referred to as Sudarshan Kriya
Yoga (SKY).
Prior literature has demonstrated significant improvements in psychological and physiological
outcomes of SKY in adults, including decreases in subjective stress, clinical and subclinical
depression and anxiety, posttraumatic stress symptoms,impulsivity, and tobacco use, as well
as increases in calm, mental focus, emotion regulation, and overall well-being.
However, little is known about the effects of SKY specifically taught in the YESplus workshop
format designed for college students. One randomized controlled trial has demonstrated
attenuated levels of subjective stress and several hematological parameters, including
lymphocytes and platelet count, during exam periods following SKY training. These findings
have not yet been replicated, and the extent to which the effects of YESplus generalize to
other health-related changes such as cardiovascular function remain unclear.
Addressing the gap in the literature described above and to provide further preliminary data
on the specific effects of YESplus on well-being and stress physiology, this study aims to
evaluate measures of self-reported wellness across a variety of questionnaires, in addition
to changes in heart rate variability and salivary cortisol levels with a stress induction
task. To control for expectancy effects, overall time spent with the workshop, social
contact, and exposure to cognitive stress management strategies that may influence the
observed effects of YESplus not specific to the yogic breathing and deep social connectedness
at the core of the YESplus targets, a comparison workshop with all of these potential
supplementary contributors will be included, titled "Wisdom On Wellness" (WOW!).
Participation will include three laboratory visits at pre-workshop (T1), post-workshop (T2),
and 1-2 month follow-up (T3) time points and four workshop sessions described below.
Screening: Interested participants will first be directed to an online pre-screening survey.
The survey will begin with a prompt describing the study and requiring understanding via
checkbox that the survey is for screening purposes. The survey will collect information such
as name, e-mail address, date of birth, motivation for the study, student status, prior
contemplative practice experience, ability to meet the time commitment, panic and bipolar
symptoms, and potential affiliation with other participants. If any of the exclusion criteria
indicated above are met, the participant will be notified of ineligibility.
Enrollment and randomization: Eligible participants will be first grouped in clusters with
any other participants with known affiliations stated in the online screener, in order to
minimize possibility of learning about material of the other workshop, then assigned a
workshop via random number generator.
Laboratory Visits: In-person laboratory visits will be conducted at the University of Arizona
Respiratory Physiology Laboratory on the main UA campus. Workshops will be conducted in
various buildings on the main UA campus depending on reservation availability.
Actigraphy, sleep diary, online questionnaires and practice logs measures will be completely
remotely after the instruments are provided to participants during an in-laboratory visit.
In addition to actigraphy, sleep diary, online questionnaires, and home practice logs (for T2
and T3 time points) the following data will be collected during each laboratory visit:
electrocardiography (ECG) with concurrent respiratory inductance plethysmography (RIP) and
pulse oximetry recordings, as well as salivary cortisol at baseline, post-stress induction
task, 30-min post-stress-induction-onset, and 45-min post. ECG, RIP belts, and pulse oximetry
will be recorded continuously, in addition to the designated resting recording periods.
Workshop evaluations: Both workshop participants and instructors will complete a brief
questionnaire at two time points (end of Day 1 and end of Day 4) during the workshop to
indicate expectation of workshop benefit.
Stress Induction. The Maastricht Acute Stress Test (MAST), a previously described and
increasingly used stress induction task will be utilized. A research staff member in a white
laboratory coat will explain that the session will be video-recorded to then be coded
afterwards by trained raters, provide background information regarding performance norms, and
express an expected ability of the participant to perform comparably. Next, the researcher
will provide instructions for the task that will be guided by a Powerpoint presentation. The
MAST consists of a 10 minute acute stress phase that combines elements of both the commonly
used Cold Pressor Test and Trier Social Stress Test, adding an element of uncertainty by
cycling between these two tests at slightly unpredictable time intervals. For the hand
immersion trials (HIT), participants will insert their dominant hand and wrist in a bucket of
ice water (approximately 2° C) for up to 90 seconds. Participants are instructed they may
remove their hand at any time. Upon removal, participants will place their hand on a towel
and immediately begin a serial subtraction task, for which participants will be instructed to
count backwards by 13, 17, or 18 from a randomly selected number between 2013 and 2073, with
interjections to start over from the beginning if any calculations are incorrect. Neutral or
negative feedback will be provided throughout the task, including comments such as "That's
wrong. Start over" and "You're going too slowly."
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