Effects of Yoga Nidra on prefrontal cortical activity and perceived stress levels in young individuals with problematic social media usage.

INTRODUCTION: Problematic social media use( PSMU) refers to excessive engagement with social media, leading to negative mental health effects, particularly among young adults. This behavioral addiction is linked to increase stress, anxiety, depression and lower self esteem. stress is a state of mental and emotional strain and triggers flight and fight response. Stress can be caused by variety of factors including work pressure, personal relationship, financial issues, health concerns and environmental factors. In Problematic social media use, it is often a coping strategy for affected children and adolescents.

Functional Near infra red spectroscopy (fNIRS) is a non invasive  neuroimaging Technique that measures changes in haemoglobin concentrations in the  brain as an indirect measure of brain activity. It utilises near infrared light to penetrate the scalp and skull, allowing the measurement of oxygenated and deoxygenated haemoglobin levels in the cortical regions of brain. fNIRS  works by emitting near infra red light(typically of wavelength of 650 to 950nm) into the tissue, while detectors absorbed the amount of light absorbed and scattered by the brain tissue. Optodes are the light emitting diodes that have specific scalp position assigned to them and data collected from this optodes helps the researchers to  reconstruct and analyse brain activity in different brain regions .It is a non invasive technique that don’t have harmful radiations exposure and can helps in recording brain activity in PSMU.

1. OBJECTIVES: To study the effects of Yoga Nidra on Pre- frontal cortical activity  in individuals with Problematic social media use.
2. To study the effects of Yoga Nidra on perceived stress levels in individuals with a problematic social media use.

RESEARCH HYPOTHESIS: Yoga Nidra will lead to significant change in resultant prefrontal cortical activity and decremental in perceived stress levels in Problematic social media users.

METHADOLOGIES:

PRE - RECRUITMENT ASSESSMENT ( 1st  Day): BERGEN SOCIAL MEDIA ADDICTION SCALE ( 6 items in the scale score range from 1 to 5) i.e, participants scoring more than and equal to 19 out of 30 will be recruited in the study).

BASELINE ASSESSMENT:

1. Demographic Details
2. Baseline Prefrontal cortical activity
3. baseline perceived stress levels by PSS( There are 10 items in the scale )(  score range from 0-40 where as 0-13 for low stress , 14-26 for moderate stress and 26-30 for high stress.

From 2nd to 10th Day( 9 days Intervention)

INTERVENTION: Yoga Nidra

SHAM GROUP: Supine Relaxation Technique

Participants were randomly assigned to interventional group and sham group.

11th Day: Post Measurements

1. Pre-frontal Cortical Activity
2. Perceived Stress Levels

RESULTS: Yoga Nidra Interventions led to significant decremental in Perceived Stress levels in both groups but no significant difference in PSS Score in both groups and there is no significant change in pre frontal cortical activity except there is pre -post significant difference in Deoxy-Hb Stroop task parameter , in case of N-3back task there is significant change in oxy parameter and total Hb parameter from pre to post intervention and there is significant change in total Hb levels between the groups in young individuals with Problematic social media usage