Insomnia

Hong Xu et al. (2024) · Menopause (New York, N.Y.)

This meta-analysis pooled 11 randomized trials testing whether mind-body exercise programs, including tai chi, yoga, Pilates, qigong, and mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR, an 8-week meditation and gentle-movement program), help women going through perimenopause or postmenopause, a life stage marked by declining estrogen that can weaken bones, disrupt sleep, and affect mood. These practices pair physical movement with controlled breathing and present-moment attention, offering a non-drug alternative for women wary of hormone therapy's cancer-risk profile. The review combined 11 trials from six countries, involving just over 1,000 women, comparing mind-body exercise groups against women who continued their normal daily activities without a structured exercise program. The trials varied widely, from 6-week programs to a full year, and used five different practices, so results were combined statistically using methods that account for this variety. Across the pooled data, mind-body exercise meaningfully helped on every measure studied: bone density improved (drawing on Pilates and tai chi trials), sleep quality improved (drawing on Pilates, yoga, qigong, and MBSR trials), and both anxiety and depression symptoms dropped substantially (also drawing on that same four-practice group), while fatigue eased too. The anxiety and depression improvements were the largest effects seen, though the studies contributing to them varied considerably in their findings (a statistical marker called heterogeneity was high), meaning some trials showed much bigger benefits than others. Taken together, the findings support mind-body exercise as a safe, reasonable option for managing the physical and emotional challenges of the menopause transition, giving women another evidence-based choice beyond hormone therapy. Because the analysis pooled several different practices together rather than testing each one separately with its own effect size, it shows that mind-body exercise as a category helps, without pinpointing exactly how much benefit comes from any one specific practice like yoga versus tai chi. The individual trials were also generally small and only partially blinded, since exercise programs are hard to disguise from participants.

Poung-Sik Yeon et al. (2022) · International journal of environmental research and public health

This study tested whether a nearby city park forest — not a remote wilderness — could help treat clinically diagnosed depression. Fifty adults aged 20 to 59 with a psychiatrist-confirmed diagnosis of mild depression were split into two groups: one attended a 6-week urban forest therapy program at Seoul Forest, a large accessible park in Seoul, South Korea, while the other continued their usual depression care (medication and/or counseling) without the forest program. Forty-seven people completed the study. The forest group met once a week for two hours over six weeks, doing gentle activities built around the five senses — stretching, mindful forest walking, an emotional card game, and breathing and meditation exercises — following a three-step approach: noticing feelings, breaking negative thought patterns, and building new daily habits. Both groups filled out standard, validated questionnaires before and after the program measuring depression (self-reported and clinician-rated), sleep quality, and physical (somatic) symptoms often tied to depression. The forest therapy group improved significantly on every measure: depression scores, sleep quality, and physical symptoms all got meaningfully better, while the group getting usual care alone showed little to no improvement on most of these. Most strikingly, on the clinician-rated depression scale, the forest group's average score dropped from a level indicating depression down to a score low enough to count as clinical remission — while the usual-care group's scores stayed in the depression range. On the self-reported depression scale, symptoms dropped by about a third, roughly comparable to what published studies find with cognitive behavioral therapy, a standard talk-therapy treatment. These results suggest a simple, once-a-week program in an ordinary city park forest — no remote retreat required — could meaningfully help people with depression, on top of their regular treatment, not instead of it. The study was fairly small, mostly female, and only followed people for six weeks, so it can't say whether the benefits last, and it can't fully separate the effect of the forest setting from simply doing a structured group activity. Still, it points to accessible urban green space as a promising, low-cost tool that could be added to standard depression care.

Nima Javadzade et al. (2024) · BMC public health

This randomized controlled trial with 60 depressed older adults living in nursing homes in Isfahan, Iran, explored whether an 8-week Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) program could ease depression, improve emotion regulation, and reduce sleep problems. MBSR is a structured group program, originally developed for stress and chronic illness, that trains people to notice thoughts, emotions, and body sensations without judgment through practices like body scanning and gentle movement. Emotion regulation here covers two distinct skills the study measured separately: cognitive reappraisal (reinterpreting a situation to change its emotional impact) and expressive suppression (holding back outward emotional expression), the latter generally considered a less adaptive coping strategy. Participants, referred by geriatricians and screened with the Geriatric Depression Scale, were randomly split into an MBSR group (30 people, average age 66) and a no-treatment control group (30 people, average age 67); 60% of each group were women. The MBSR group attended eight weekly 90-minute sessions with a certified instructor, practicing body scans, mindful movement, loving-kindness meditation, walking meditation, and mindful eating, plus home practice between sessions. Before the program and one week after it ended, both groups completed the Geriatric Depression Scale, the Emotion Regulation Questionnaire, and the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index. After 8 weeks, the MBSR group showed significantly lower depression scores than the control group (adjusted averages 6.28 vs. 8.82, p<0.001), with a large effect size (partial eta squared=0.57, meaning the intervention accounted for over half the variance in the outcome). Emotion regulation shifted favorably on both subscales: cognitive reappraisal rose (22.67 vs. 20.36, p<0.001) while expressive suppression fell (12.32 vs. 15.65, p<0.001, partial eta squared=0.56) — a pattern consistent with Gross's emotion regulation model, in which stronger reappraisal skills reshape an emotional response early, reducing reliance on effortful suppression later. Sleep quality also improved, with lower Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index scores in the MBSR group (11.58 vs. 13.35, p<0.001), which the authors link to MBSR increasing attentional control over the automatic arousal and rumination that disrupt sleep. All four outcomes reached statistical significance with observed power near 1.00 (a near-certain ability to detect a true effect). For nursing-home psychologists and caregivers, MBSR appears to be a practical, side-effect-free complement to standard depression care for older residents, requiring only a certified instructor and a weekly 90-minute time commitment. Limitations are real: outcomes relied entirely on self-report in a population prone to inaccurate self-assessment, the control group received no intervention at all rather than an active comparison, there was no follow-up beyond one week, and the sample was limited to depressed nursing-home residents in Iran. Future research should add objective measures and longer follow-up before these findings are treated as conclusive.

Sahar Hamzeh et al. (2020) · Evidence-based complementary and alternative medicine : eCAM

This randomized controlled trial with 120 adult cancer patients explored whether breathing in lavender or peppermint essential oil before bed could ease the poor sleep that affects roughly a third of people with cancer. Sleep disruption in cancer care is often treated with sedative medications, which carry dependency risks, so researchers wanted a gentler alternative. Aromatherapy works through inhalation: aromatic molecules bind receptors in the nasal lining, sending signals to brain regions (the limbic system and thalamus) that release calming compounds like serotonin. Lavenders calming compounds are linalool and linalyl acetate; peppermints main compound, menthol, is thought to ease anxiety by damping stress-hormone release. Patients (average age 49, just over half women, most being treated for leukemia) at an oncology ward in Kermanshah, Iran were split into three equal groups of 40. For seven nights, the lavender and peppermint groups had three drops of their essential oil placed on a cotton ball pinned near the collar for 20 minutes before sleep; a masked control group got scented water instead. Everyone completed the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), a validated sleep questionnaire, before starting and again after the week was up. All participants started with poor sleep (average PSQI score of 12.62, where 5 or higher signals a problem). Sleep quality improved across all three groups over the week (p < 0.0001 for the change over time), and the pattern of improvement differed by group (interaction p < 0.001): 10% of patients using either lavender or peppermint reached good sleep quality by the end, versus 5% on the control. Even so, none of the direct group-to-group comparisons reached statistical significance -- lavender vs. control (p = 0.28), peppermint vs. control (p = 0.19), and lavender vs. peppermint (p = 0.82) -- meaning the trial could not statistically confirm that either oil outperformed the masked control, even though both intervention groups trended toward greater improvement. No adverse effects were reported from either oil. These results offer tentative, not definitive, support for lavender or peppermint inhalation as a low-cost, low-risk sleep aid alongside cancer care -- the trend favored both oils, but the comparison against a masked control did not reach statistical significance. Limitations include a study population with mixed cancer types and stages, unaccounted-for concurrent medications, and no report of cancer stage for many patients, all of which could affect sleep quality and treatment response. Larger trials with stage-matched groups and a truly unscented control are needed to determine whether either essential oil offers real benefit.

Katarzyna Janda et al. (2020) · Nutrients

This systematic review pooled nine randomised clinical trials to ask whether passionflower (Passiflora incarnata) helps with anxiety, sleep and related neuropsychiatric symptoms. Passionflower is a perennial climbing vine whose aerial parts, flowers and fruit are used medicinally, and whose activity is attributed to flavonoids such as apigenin and luteolin and to flavonoid glycosides including vitexin and isovitexin. The European Medicines Agency recognised it as a medicinal product in a 2014 herbal monograph. The review frames the problem as stress — the body's response to physical and psychological stressors, which becomes pathological when prolonged and can impair concentration and memory. The authors searched PubMed, Embase and ClinicalTrials.gov to October 2019 and screened 417 records down to nine trials run between 2017 and 2019, five of them in Iran. Participants were all adults, between 16 and 128 per trial, and eight of the nine trials enrolled healthy volunteers rather than diagnosed patients. Preparations varied widely — drops, tablets, syrup, a standardised extract and herbal tea — over periods from a single day to 30 days. Anxiety was measured with instruments including the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory and the Corah Dental Anxiety Scale, sedation with the Ramsey scale, and sleep with polysomnography. Most trials found reduced anxiety, though the benefit was smaller in people whose anxiety was mild to begin with. In generalised anxiety disorder, 45 drops daily for 28 days matched oxazepam without impairing work performance. Before surgery, 500 mg tablets lowered anxiety more than oxazepam, and a 700 mg per 5 mL syrup given 30 minutes before spinal anaesthesia reduced anxiety with haemodynamics unchanged. Compared with midazolam before wisdom-tooth extraction, 260 mg gave similar calming with markedly less somnolence (50% versus 82.5%) and no amnesia at all, against 20% on midazolam — although more participants would still choose midazolam again (52% versus 27.5%), which the authors attribute to that same amnesia preventing negative memories. Herbal tea drunk nightly for a week improved self-reported sleep quality by 5.2% over placebo. No adverse effects, memory loss or collapse of psychometric function were reported anywhere in the review. The practical reading is that passionflower performs comparably to two established sedatives for procedural anxiety, with a different side-effect profile — less somnolence, no amnesia — which may matter where alertness is wanted afterwards. The evidence is genuinely limited, though: nine small trials, too heterogeneous to pool statistically, three of them rated low quality, and most never recorded which part of the plant was used. Its anxiolytic action is thought to work through the GABA system. Larger trials across more varied populations are needed before firm dosing guidance is possible.

Ziqing Soh et al. (2025) · Journal of food and drug analysis

This double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled trial with 30 young Malaysian women explored whether a beverage combining chamomile and l-theanine could ease primary dysmenorrhea - menstrual cramping that occurs without any underlying pelvic disease. Chamomile (Matricaria recutita) is a flowering herb long used as a calming remedy; the study intervention used a standardized flower extract of it. L-theanine is a non-protein amino acid concentrated in tea leaves (Camellia sinensis), used in supplements to support relaxation. The trial paired both in a functional beverage (CTT) and tested it against a chamomile-flavored placebo (non-CTT) to see whether the combination eased pain, mood, and sleep during menstruation. Thirty women aged 18-30 with primary dysmenorrhea (pain rated at least 4 of 10 on a visual scale across three cycles) were randomly split into a CTT group (480 mg chamomile extract plus 200 mg l-theanine daily) or a non-CTT control group, drinking two 240 mL packs daily - one on waking, one before bed - for five days spanning two days before their period through its third day. Pain was tracked with two 0-10 scales, symptoms with the 18-item Cox Menstrual Symptom Scale, sleep with the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index, and mood with the Profile of Mood States. Compared to their own baseline, women drinking CTT saw pain scores drop by roughly 57% on both pain scales (p<0.001), a large reduction over five days. Eight menstrual symptoms also eased significantly, including lower abdominal pain (down 53%), back pain (down 56%), and irritability (down 45%, all p<0.05). Mood shifted too: depression scores fell 12% and vigor (energy and alertness) rose 62% (p<0.05). On sleep, only "daytime dysfunction" - grogginess, poor concentration, and low energy during the day - improved (down 32%, p<0.05); overall sleep quality, how long it took to fall asleep, and total sleep time did not change significantly. Hemoglobin levels, checked with a finger-prick test, were unaffected in either group, likely because red blood cells take weeks to months to regenerate, too slow to show up in five days. Interestingly, the placebo group also felt calmer on a few measures, which the researchers link to the shared chamomile scent and flavor rather than to any active ingredient. For young women managing primary dysmenorrhea without relying on NSAIDs, a short course of this chamomile-l-theanine beverage appears to meaningfully ease pain and several physical and emotional symptoms, with no reported side effects. Because chamomile and l-theanine were only tested together, it is not yet clear how much each contributes individually, and the tiny sample (15 per group) and single five-day cycle mean the results are preliminary. Longer trials spanning multiple cycles, larger and more diverse groups, and a scent-neutral placebo are needed before firmer conclusions can be drawn.

Nathalie Schicktanz et al. (2025) · Brain and behavior

This randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial with 40 completers explored whether Ze 91019, a fixed extract combination of valerian root (Valeriana officinalis) and hops (Humulus lupulus), could improve sleep in adults with occasional insomnia — sleep disturbances happening once or twice a week rather than a full clinical insomnia diagnosis — without the grogginess or memory problems that often accompany prescription sleep medications like benzodiazepines. Valerian and hops are long-used botanical sleep aids; in this fixed combination they are thought to act on the brain's adenosine system, the same pathway caffeine blocks, which governs how sleepy or alert the brain feels. Forty-one healthy adults aged 18-65 with occasional sleep problems and subjective cognitive complaints were randomized at the University of Basel, Switzerland, to either Ze 91019 or placebo for 21 nights, after a 21-day baseline period. Each night, participants took one tablet, 500 mg valerian extract plus 120 mg hops extract, about an hour before bed. A Fitbit Charge 5 wristband tracked sleep duration and heart rate continuously, while daily online tests measured reaction time and working memory (digit span backward), and visual analog scales captured mood, stress, tiredness, and sleep quality. The study design itself worked well, with adherence above 89% for surveys and medication and above 96% for the wearable tracker. Compared with placebo, Ze 91019 increased average nightly sleep duration by 21.7 minutes (p = 0.019, a small-to-moderate effect) and lengthened time in bed by 24.4 minutes (p = 0.023). The benefit was largest on each person's shortest night of sleep, where Ze 91019 added 48.7 minutes of sleep versus placebo (p = 0.016), suggesting the extract may help most when sleep is already restricted. Despite the sleep gains, daytime reaction time, working memory, and self-rated mood, stress, and cognitive performance did not differ significantly between groups (p ≥ 0.26), meaning the extra sleep did not translate into measurable next-day cognitive or emotional change. Twenty-nine mild-to-moderate adverse events occurred overall, somewhat more often with Ze 91019 than placebo, but the difference was not statistically significant, and no serious adverse events occurred. These results support Ze 91019 as a generally well-tolerated option for occasional sleep difficulty that does not appear to blunt next-day thinking or mood, unlike many conventional hypnotics. However, this was explicitly a feasibility study with no formal power calculation, exploratory statistics, and only 40 completers at a single site, so the sleep-duration effect needs confirmation in a larger, adequately powered trial. Because valerian and hops were tested only as a fixed combination, the individual contribution of each herb remains unclear, and longer studies are needed to see whether cognitive benefits emerge over time.

Dilek Yildirim et al. (2025) · Supportive care in cancer : official journal of the Multinational Association of Supportive Care in Cancer

This single-blind randomized controlled trial with 100 hospitalized adults explored whether inhaling lavender essential oil could ease two of the most disruptive symptoms of chemotherapy for blood cancer patients: fatigue and poor sleep. Fatigue here means a persistent, whole-body exhaustion that isn't relieved by rest and that chemotherapy drugs are known to intensify, while sleep quality captures how deep, continuous, and restorative a night's sleep actually is rather than just its duration. Lavender oil, extracted from a hybrid of two Mediterranean Lavandula species, is inhaled rather than ingested, working through its scent's effect on the brain's limbic system rather than any drug-like mechanism. Fifty adults with hematological cancers (multiple myeloma, leukemias, lymphomas) receiving chemotherapy in an Istanbul hospital were assigned to inhale two drops of lavender oil from a shoulder-pinned sponge for 20 minutes each night before bed, for five consecutive nights; another 50 received unscented saline the same way. Neither group knew which oil they were smelling. Fatigue was scored with the 22-item Piper Fatigue Scale and sleep with the six-item Richards-Campbell Sleep Questionnaire, both completed at baseline and again the morning after the fifth night. By night six, the lavender group's overall sleep score was meaningfully higher than the saline group's (70.80 vs. 59.16 out of 100, p = 0.001 — lavender users reported deeper, less interrupted sleep), with clear advantages in sleep depth, time to fall asleep, and number of awakenings. Fatigue told the same story in reverse: the lavender group's fatigue score dropped to 4.54 versus 5.51 in the control group (p = 0.001, lower is better), with the steepest improvements in the subscales measuring fatigue's effect on daily activities, physical sensations, and mental clarity. A statistical model combining lavender use and sleep score explained about 17% of the variation in how fatigued patients felt (R² = 0.171, p < 0.001) — a modest but real share, meaning sleep and scent worked together rather than independently. One subscale, emotional response to fatigue, improved but didn't quite reach statistical significance (p = 0.052). For hematology-oncology nurses, this points to an inexpensive, side-effect-free option — no adverse events were reported — that can be added to nightly care without special training or equipment. The trial only tracked five nights, so whether the benefit holds up over a full chemotherapy course is unknown, and the researchers grouped all blood cancer types together rather than testing whether effects differ by diagnosis. Larger, longer trials are needed before lavender aromatherapy becomes a standard recommendation rather than a promising adjunct.

Harshith Chandra Shekhar et al. (2023) · Advances in therapy

This double-blind randomized trial with 80 adults tested whether valerian — the root extract that has been Europe's traditional sleep herb for centuries — measurably improves sleep when held to modern trial standards. Participants with ongoing sleep complaints took either 200 mg of standardized Valeriana officinalis extract or an identical placebo capsule daily for eight weeks, with neither participants nor researchers knowing who received which. What sets this trial apart is how sleep was measured. Beyond the standard Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index questionnaire, everyone wore wrist actigraphy devices that objectively track sleep and wake, and half the participants underwent polysomnography — the full laboratory sleep study with brain-wave monitoring that sleep medicine treats as its gold standard. Anxiety, daytime sleepiness, and the feeling of waking refreshed were tracked alongside, with blood work and vital signs monitoring safety throughout. Valerian delivered on nearly every front. Sleep quality scores improved significantly versus placebo by day 14 and stayed better through day 56 (p<0.05). The objective measures agreed: actigraphy showed people falling asleep faster and sleeping longer from day 3 onward, and the laboratory sleep studies confirmed longer total sleep, quicker sleep onset, and better sleep efficiency at eight weeks. Anxiety scores dropped, daytime drowsiness eased, and participants reported waking up more refreshed. No safety signals appeared in any blood test, vital sign, or examination — a meaningful contrast with prescription sleep aids and even melatonin's daytime-drowsiness complaints. This trial offers unusually convergent evidence for valerian in mild sleep complaints: subjective ratings, wrist-worn tracking, and laboratory measurement all pointed the same direction at a modest 200 mg daily dose. The caveats are a moderately sized sample of younger adults with mild symptoms and an eight-week window — the findings do not extend to severe or chronic insomnia.

Yolanda Nadal-Nicolás et al. (2020) · International journal of environmental research and public health

This randomized controlled trial with 24 women asked whether hands-on massage therapy can move the needle on fibromyalgia — the chronic condition that combines widespread muscle pain with fatigue, unrefreshing sleep, and mood struggles. Researchers in Alicante, Spain recruited women aged 47 to 59 with rheumatologist-confirmed fibromyalgia affecting the neck and upper back, then randomized them to real treatment or a convincing placebo. The real treatment was manual therapy with moderate finger pressure on the back of the neck and upper back — fifteen minutes, twice a week, for four weeks, growing gradually firmer as each patient tolerated. The placebo was clever: an ultrasound machine applied to the same area for the same time, but switched off and used without gel, so participants experienced an equally plausible clinical ritual. Pain, fatigue, sleep, anxiety, and mood were measured before and after the month of treatment. Pain responded decisively. The manual therapy group's pain scores dropped by 4.2 points from baseline (p<0.001 — a large within-group effect of 2.07), and after treatment they sat 2.9 points below the placebo group (p=0.044, a moderate between-group effect of 0.59). Everything else stayed flat: fatigue, sleep quality, anxiety, and mood showed no significant improvement over placebo. An interesting side note - fatigue and poor sleep moved together (R=0.411), as did pain and anger-hostility scores (R=0.436), hinting at how fibromyalgia symptoms interlock. For women with fibromyalgia, this trial offers a practical, specific prescription: gentle-to-moderate pressure massage on the neck and upper back, twice weekly, genuinely reduces pain beyond the placebo effect — but on this evidence it should be expected to help pain, not the full fibromyalgia symptom cluster. The trial was small (24 analyzed), dropout hit the placebo arm harder, and all participants were women from one region, so larger trials are needed before firmer conclusions.

Madhu Pandey et al. (2025) · Annals of neurosciences

This study explores the therapeutic benefits of 'Vancharya', a nature-based intervention, on the bio-field of young adults. The research involved 50 participants and aimed to assess the impact of this ancient practice on various subtle energy systems, revealing significant improvements in energy metrics and overall well-being. The findings suggest that 'Vancharya' could serve as a valuable therapeutic option for enhancing mental health among young adults. The study employed a non-experimental single-group pre- and post-research design with a sample size of 50 college students aged 17-19. Participants engaged in a seven-day intervention that included activities such as alternate nostril breathing, tree hugging, and listening to bird sounds, all conducted in a mango orchard setting. Outcomes were measured using a Biowell machine, which assessed parameters like aura field, chakra alignment, and stress levels before and after the intervention. Each session lasted one hour and occurred daily for seven consecutive days. Results indicated significant improvements in the aura field (AF: M pre = 36.94, M post = 44.82, t = −12.40, p < .001), overall chakra alignment (OCA: M pre = 63.52, M post = 79.72, t = −7.44, p < .001), and overall chakra energy (OCE: M pre = 4.16, M post = 5.07, t = −8.44, p < .001). However, stress levels (SL: M pre = 6.79, M post = 5.58, p = 1.000) and overall energy levels (OEL: M pre = 45.61, M post = 49.38, p = .133) did not show significant changes. Participants reported qualitative improvements such as enhanced emotional stability and clarity of thought, with no adverse events noted during the study. The findings suggest that 'Vancharya' may enhance emotional regulation and sleep quality among young adults, making it a potential addition to wellness programs aimed at addressing mental health issues. However, the study's limitations, including a small sample size and the lack of significant changes in stress levels, highlight the need for further research. The authors propose 'Vancharya' as a candidate component of mental health interventions, and call for longer intervention durations and more diverse populations to validate these results and understand the mechanisms involved.

Natalie L Dyer et al. (2023) · Global advances in integrative medicine and health

This pilot trial evaluated a remote Reiki program aimed at improving health-related quality of life for frontline healthcare workers during the COVID-19 pandemic. The study is significant as it addresses the urgent mental health challenges faced by healthcare professionals due to increased stress and anxiety during this crisis. The study employed a pragmatic within-subjects trial design, involving frontline healthcare professionals from the NHS in the UK, although the specific sample size was not calculated. Participants received distance Reiki sessions for 20 minutes each day over four consecutive days, facilitated by trained practitioners. Health outcomes were measured using a custom-built online questionnaire based on the Measure Yourself Medical Outcome Profile (MYMOP), assessing parameters such as stress, anxiety, pain, wellbeing, and sleep quality before and after the intervention. Results indicated significant improvements in primary outcomes, with stress decreasing from a median of 4.0 pre-intervention to 2.0 post-intervention (P < .001, r = .634), and anxiety also reducing from 4.0 to 2.0 (P < .001, r = .698). Secondary outcomes showed similar trends, with pain decreasing from 2.0 to 1.0 (P < .001, r = .630), wellbeing improving from 4.0 to 2.0 (P < .001, r = .578), and sleep quality improving from 4.0 to 3.0 (P = .019, r = .371). Qualitative feedback from participants highlighted experiences of improved sleep and reduced stress, with no adverse events reported during the study. The findings suggest that distance Reiki could be a valuable intervention for enhancing the health-related quality of life among healthcare workers, particularly during stressful periods like the COVID-19 pandemic. The study's limitations include a predominantly female sample and the absence of gender analysis, indicating the need for further research to confirm these results across diverse populations. The authors propose distance Reiki as a candidate component of wellness programs for healthcare professionals, and call for studies of the biological mechanisms underlying Reiki's effects and randomized controlled trials of its long-term efficacy.

Bernie Garrett et al. (2021) · Nursing open

This 2021 rapid evidence assessment examined ten years of research on Therapeutic Touch (TT), one of the most widely practiced energy healing methods in nursing. TT practitioners hold their hands near — but not on — a patient's body, aiming to sense and rebalance the human biofield (a proposed energy field surrounding the body, related to concepts like qi and prana in traditional systems). Developed in 1972 within nursing, TT is still taught in nursing schools today, so two researchers set out to answer a direct question: how well does the recent evidence actually hold up? The reviewers screened seven research databases for every clinical TT study published between January 2009 and March 2020, following PRISMA systematic-review guidelines. From 3,290 records they identified 21 qualifying studies — 15 randomized controlled trials among them — covering 1,302 patients from premature infants to adults in their 90s, in settings from cancer care to post-surgical recovery. Each study was scored for evidence quality and risk of bias using standard appraisal tools. On the surface the results look remarkable: 18 of 21 studies reported benefits — less pain, less anxiety, better sleep, reduced nausea. But quality told a different story. Over 70% of the studies scored the minimum possible evidence rating, and only 4 of 21 had a low risk of bias — and those four stronger studies all found no difference between TT and control treatments (meaning the positive results came almost entirely from the weakest research). No study reported any adverse effects, so safety was not a concern. The review's picture of TT: it appears safe and many participants find it relaxing, but there is currently no high-quality evidence it works better than placebo or other relaxation approaches, and sessions can cost around $120/hour. The reviewers recommend that research first validate whether the biofield can be reliably detected and measured — foundational work that biofield science is actively pursuing — before more clinical trials are run.

Mahendra Kumar Trivedi et al. (2024) · Health psychology research

This randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blind study provides evidence on the effectiveness of distant biofield energy healing for psychological and mental health-related symptoms. The study involved 114 participants (55 male, 59 female) who exhibited one or more psychological symptoms, such as anxiety, depression, and cognitive impairment. Participants were divided into three groups: a biofield intervention group, a control group, and a sham control group. The biofield intervention group received two sessions of distant energy healing, while the other groups received similar treatments to control for baseline responses. Results indicated that the biofield intervention group experienced significant improvements in psychological symptoms, with a p-value of less than 0.0001, suggesting a strong statistical significance. This means that the improvements observed were unlikely to be due to chance. Participants reported reductions in fatigue, sleep disturbances, anxiety, and emotional trauma, among other symptoms. Importantly, no adverse effects were reported in any of the groups throughout the trial, indicating that the biofield therapy was safe. These findings point to distant biofield energy healing as a possible complementary approach in mental health, on this study's evidence. However, it is essential to note that this study was conducted at a single center with a relatively small sample size, which may limit the generalizability of the results. Future research with larger, more diverse populations is necessary to confirm these findings and explore the mechanisms behind the observed effects. In summary, this study suggests distant biofield energy healing may improve mental health and overall quality of life measures; the authors frame it as a complement to conventional treatment.