Do Progressive Relaxation Exercises Affect the Sleep and Quality of Life of Pregnant Women?

Progressive Relaxation Exercises (PRE) are breathing and stretching technique that helps relax nerves and muscles from hand to foot and, reduces sympathetic nervous system activity by stimulating the parasympathetic nervous system. It is thought that at the end of the PGE training given to pregnant women, learning PGE and applying it for six weeks will reduce the sleep problems that increase especially in the third trimester and thus increase their sleep and life quality. The PSQI evaluates sleep quality over the past month and consists of a total of 24 questions. The self-report questions cover various factors related to sleep quality, including estimates of sleep duration, sleep latency, and the frequency and severity of specific sleep-related issues. The scoring includes 18 items, grouped into 7 component scores. The sum of the component scores yields the total PSQI score, which ranges from 0 to 21. A total score greater than 5 indicates poor sleep quality.

The SF-12 encompasses two different dimensions: Physical Component Summary Score (PCSS) and Mental Component Summary Score (MCSS). Unlike the total score calculated for the SF-36, it is not used for the SF-12. In calculating the scale, the physical standardization values and mental standardization values for the answers given by individuals are added separately. Subsequently, for the 12 questions, 56.57706 is added to the physical standardization total to derive the physical components summary, and 60.75781 is added to the mental standardization total to derive the mental components summary. Both PCSS-12 and MCSS-12 scores range from 0 to 100, with higher scores representing better health. High scores indicate good health status. The Cronbach's alpha coefficients for the scale were found to be 0.73 for PCSS-12 and 0.72 for MCSS-12. In this study, the Cronbach's alpha coefficients were 0.69 for PCSS-12 and 0.71 for MCSS-12.