A Study to assess the effect of laughter therapy on quality of sleep and blood pressure among adult people residing in selected area at Tirupur District.

The main aim of the study was to determine whether laughter therapy makes a significant difference in blood pressure and sleep among hypertensive patients in comparison with the non receivers of laughter therapy. The study was conducted in community area (kodangipalayam) at Tirupur District. Repeated measures pretest and post test group design was used to determine the effectiveness of laughter therapy on hypertensive clients. The sample consisted of 30 subjects in experimental group and 25 subjects in control group selected by purposive sampling method from different areas of the community. All subjects in the experimental group were taught laughter therapy in one session for 30 minutes followed by daily practice of laughter therapy every day for 20 minutes for a Period of 28 days in the presence of the investigator. On the first day before intervention and on the 7th ,14th ,21st ,and 28th days after intervention both the groups were assessed for their systolic and diastolic blood pressure measures by using a calibrated sphygmomanometer and sleep was rated by the modified Pittsburgh sleep scale. The result showed the significant reduction in systolic and the diastolic blood pressure in the experimental group(pre M=160 and post M=132)(t=2.04,df=28,p=0.05%) and diastolic blood pressure(pre M=93.67 and post M=80.67)(t=2.04,df28,p=0.05%) after intervention .The mean systolic and diastolic blood ressure in the control group remained the same in the subsequent baseline assessments. The mean sleep score of the experimental and group was ( pre 15.57) and (post M=3.90) showed a significant difference (t=2.04,df=28,p=0.05%) after intervention which was significant at 0.05 level . The mean score of the control group remained the same in the pre and post assessment. The study concluded that laughter therapy is a cost effective nursing intervention to reduce blood pressure and improve the quality of sleep.