Tibetan Yoga Helps Sleep

By Kate Ramsayer
Houston Chronicle

East meets West in one corner of the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, where researchers are using the techniques of Western medicine to examine the efficacy of Eastern practices.

Along with his colleagues, Dr. Lorenzo Cohen of M.D. Anderson recently published a report in the journal Cancer that found cancer patients who participated in a Tibetan yoga course noticed improvements in their sleep patterns.

"It was quite remarkable to us that we were actually able to have an impact on patients' sleep," said Cohen, the director of the integrative medicine center at M.D. Anderson and an associate professor in the behavioral science department.

"Cancer patients' sleep can be so disruptive, so to have designed a program that significantly improved their sleep seems quite beneficial."

The yoga that patients practiced was not the Hatha yoga that is familiar to many people, but is based on forms called Tsa lung and Trul khor, described in 11th century Tibetan texts.

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