The effect of stretching exercises on sleep quality in type 2 diabetic patients with restless legs syndrome

Introduction: Restless leg syndrome is a sensory-motor disorder with an unknown cause that is highly prevalent among patients with diabetes and causes severe sleep disturbance. The study aimed to investigate the effect of stretching exercises on sleep quality in type 2 diabetic patients with restless legs syndrome Methods: This is a semi-experimental clinical trial study with control group that was conducted on 80 patients admitted to endocrine ward of Firoozgar Hospital in 1394. Samples were selected through convenient method. The cards were prepared based on the number of samples; the word control was written on the half of cards and the word intervention on the other half. Then, all the cards were placed in a bag. Every patient was asked to take a card out of the bag and then included in a group. Stretching exercises were performed for 3 nights for 30 minutes before bedtime to patients in the intervention group and patients in the control group received usual care. The data was collected through Pittsburgh Sleep Quality, the severity of RLS and Restless Leg Syndrome screening questionnaires. The data were analyzed by Wilcoxon and Mann-Whitney tests in SPSS version 22. Results: The results showed that there is a statistical significant difference in the mean and standard deviation of the two groups after intervention (P-Value <0/001) indicating the positive effect of stretching exercises to improve sleep quality in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus. Also, the results of comparing sleep quality before and after the intervention was not significant in control group (P-Value = 1), while the comparison in the intervention group was significant (P-Value <0/001). Conclusion: The results of this study suggest that stretching exercises of leg is effective on improving sleep quality in patients with restless leg syndrome; so the care and treatment staff including nurses are recommended to apply this procedure in the care of type 2 diabetic patients with restless legs syndrome in order to improve sleep quality and reduce the severity of symptoms.

کلیدواژه ها:

: diabetes ، sleep quality ، restless leg syndrome ، stretching exercises