Abstract
Female hormone changes during menopause can affect the autonomic nervous system, circadian rhythm, and secretion of cortisol/melatonin, resulting in a vulnerability to insomnia. In this light, therapy has been gaining attention as a way to reduce stress hormones by stabilizing the autonomic nervous system. Thus, this study aims to objectively and scientifically analyze the impact of forest therapy in postmenopausal insomnia patients. The forest therapy program lasted 6 days, wherein 35 postmenopausal women performed activities such as trekking, leg massages, stretches, and bathing in warm and cold water. They also underwent serologic tests, participated in polysomnography (PSG), and answered sleep questionnaires before and after the program. Further, a statistical analysis compared the results. Serologic tests showed a significant reduction of cortisol from 10.2 ± 3.79 to 7.75 ± 2.81, while PSGs showed how sleep efficiency increased to 89.3 ± 4.3% (p < 0.01), and how waking after sleep onset reduced to 47.4 ± 22.3 min (p < 0.01). The total sleep time also increased to 428.5 min and sleep latency was 11.1 ± 11.0 min. Despite its limitations, forest therapy could be a good alternative to nonpharmacological treatment for mitigating insomnia in postmenopausal women.
Highlights
Despite numerous studies considering forest therapy as a form of alternative medicine, there remains insufficient scientific evidence because of varying forest compositions and healing or treatment programs
The study was conducted among women over the age of 40, who complained of insomnia caused by menopause
There were no significant changes in interleukin 6 and C-reactive protein (CRP) levels
Summary
Despite numerous studies considering forest therapy as a form of alternative medicine, there remains insufficient scientific evidence because of varying forest compositions and healing or treatment programs. Various types of research on the effects of forest therapy were conducted to establish this form of therapy as an evidence-based alternative. One study verified the increased positive emotions of middle-aged women caused by forest therapy programs, reduced their negative emotions, such as depression and anxiety, and decreased their levels of serum cortisol after forest therapy [1]. In a study by Lee et al [2], forest walking showed increased cardiovascular relaxation and reduced negative emotional symptoms due to increased parasympathetic activity for young, Int. J. Res. Public Health 2020, 17, 6548; doi:10.3390/ijerph17186548 www.mdpi.com/journal/ijerph
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