Safiye Ağapınar ŞAHİN, Sibel ÖZTÜRK, Nazlı Akar SEZER
Mediterranean Nursing and Midwifery - 2026;6(3):242-248
Objective: The present study was performed to evaluate the impact of laughter yoga on sleep quality and life satisfaction in midwifery students. Methods: This is a randomized controlled experimental study. The research data were collected from midwifery students at a university in eastern Turkiye via Google Forms from 23 January 2023 to 20 February 2023. The population of the study consisted of 194 students, and the entire population was included in the sample. The study was completed with 77 students. The population comprised first-year, second-year, and third-year midwifery students with low sleep quality. The Student Information Form, the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index, and the Life Satisfaction Scale were utilized in the research. Participants in the experimental group practiced laughter yoga as the intervention, whereas no intervention was administered to those in the control group. First, pretest measurements were taken from experimental and control groups, and then, after the practice of the intervention in the experimental group, the post-test data of both groups were evaluated simultaneously. Results: In the inter-group comparison after the intervention, the mean sleep quality scores of the experimental and control groups were found to be 4.54 +/- 2.30 and 6.85 +/- 2.70, respectively. In the context of the post-test evaluation of sleep quality, there was a significant difference between the groups (P = .000). However, in the post-test inter-group comparison, no significant variation was found between the mean life satisfaction levels of the experimental and control groups (P = .821). Conclusion: It was discerned that laughter yoga affected the sleep quality of students, whereas it did not affect their life satisfaction. Laughter yoga is considered to be applicable to students of health-related university departments who suffer from sleep problems.
