Immediate Effect of a Yoga Breathing Practice on Attention and Anxiety in Pre-Teen Children.

Pre-teen children face stressors related to their transition from childhood to adolescence, with a simultaneous increase in academic pressure. The present study compared the immediate effects of 18 min of (i) high frequency yoga breathing with (ii) yoga-based breath awareness and (iii) sitting quietly, on (a) attention and (b) anxiety, in 61 pre-teen children (aged between 11 and 12 years; 25 girls). Attention was assessed using a six letter cancellation task and Spielberger's State Trait Anxiety Inventory STAI-S was used to measure anxiety before and after the three practices, practiced on separate days. Repeated measures ANOVA, followed by Bonferroni adjusted post-hoc analyses showed an increase in total attempts and net scores after high frequency yoga breathing (p < 0.05), while wrong attempts increased after yoga based breath awareness (p < 0.05). Anxiety decreased comparably after all three interventions. The 25 girls in the group had the same trend of results as the whole group with respect to the attention-based cancellation task, while boys showed no, how since change. For both girls and boys, anxiety decreased after all three 18min interventions. The results suggest that high frequency yoga breathing could be a short, useful school based practice to improve attention and reduce anxiety.

Effect of yoga on vigilance, self rated sleep and state anxiety in Border Security Force personnel in India.

BACKGROUND: Military occupations require heightened vigilance with resultant sleep disturbances, increased anxiety and reduced vigilance. OBJECTIVE: To compare yoga with physical training to reduce insomnia, anxiety and increase vigilance in security personnel. METHODS: One hundred and twelve Border Security Force personnel (BSF group, males; mean age±SD = 30.4±7.4 years) were compared with 112 personnel of a private security firm (SIS group). The BSF group received yoga for nine days and the SIS group received physical training for the same period. Assessments were at baseline and after 9 days, with the digit vigilance test (DVT), Spielberger's STAI-S, and a sleep rating questionnaire. RESULTS: (1) Between groups: (i) at baseline the BSF group had higher vigilance and more daytime naps compared to the SIS group and (ii) after nine days the SIS group had higher state anxiety compared to the BSF group (ANOVA, Bonferroni adjusted post-hoc comparisons; SPSS Version 24.0) (2) In post-pre intervention comparisons (i) the BSF group increased vigilance and decreased state anxiety after yoga, with improved sleep, while (ii) the SIS group showed increased vigilance after physical training. CONCLUSION: Yoga may improve sleep, reduce anxiety while increasing vigilance in occupations requiring vigilance.

Changes in Shape and Size Discrimination and State Anxiety After Alternate-Nostril Yoga Breathing and Breath Awareness in One Session Each.

BACKGROUND Yoga breathing techniques like high-frequency yoga breathing (HFYB) and breath awareness (BAW) have been associated with improved performance in the shape and size discrimination task. A PubMed search of the literature revealed that alternate-nostril breathing has been shown to improve performance in attention tasks, but the effect on tactile perception has not been studied. Hence, the present study was designed to assess the immediate effects of alternate-nostril yoga breathing (ANYB) compared to breath awareness on shape and size discrimination and state anxiety. MATERIAL AND METHODS Fifty healthy male volunteers ages 20-50 years (group mean ±S.D., 28.4±8.2 years) were recruited. Each participant was assessed in 3 sessions conducted on 3 separate days at the same time of day. The 3 sessions were (i) alternate-nostril yoga breathing (ANYB), (ii) breath awareness (BAW), and (iii) quiet sitting (QS), and the sequence of the sessions was randomly allocated. The shape and size discrimination task and state anxiety were assessed before and after all 3 sessions. Repeated measures analysis of variance (RM-ANOVA) followed by post hoc tests for multiple comparisons, which were Bonferroni-adjusted, were performed to compare data before and after all 3 sessions using SPSS version 18.0. RESULTS The errors scores in the shape and size discrimination task showed a significant reduction after the ANYB session (p<0.001). A significant reduction was found in the level of state anxiety after breath awareness (p<0.05) and quiet sitting sessions (p<0.001). CONCLUSIONS The present results suggest that ANYB: (i) improves performance in a task which requires perceptual sensitivity and focused attention, but (ii) does not reduce state anxiety following this task.