The Effect of Health Education and Progressive Muscle Relaxation Exercise on Vasomotor Symptoms and Sleep Problems With Perimenopausal Women

"We used the muscle relaxation audio CD produced by the Turkish Psychologists Association. The CD consists of three parts; the 10-min first part includes definition and purpose of relaxation, and points to take into consideration during relaxation, the 30-min second part includes instructions with river sounds, and the 30-min third part includes only relaxing music without instructions. We used the second part of the audio record in this study. Following the instructions on the CD, the students tensed each muscle group from hands to feet, and then, all muscles in their face and body for approximately 10 s. The women breathed in, tensed a specific muscle group, and then relaxed it while breathing out. The relaxation step took 10-20 s before tensing the next muscle group. Thus, the women relaxed by tensing and relaxing the muscle groups in hands, arms, neck, shoulder, chest, stomach, hips, foot and fingers, and all muscles in the face and body."