Tai Chi for Better Sleep in Older Adults? The New Deep-Sleep Signal Needs Careful Reading

Thu, 10 Sep 2026 00:21:38 +0700

Tai Chi is having a small sleep-research moment, and this one is a bit more interesting than the usual “people felt better” story.

A 2026 randomized trial in Frontiers in Physiology tested 12 weeks of standardized 24-form Tai Chi in adults aged 65-75 with mild sleep disturbance. The researchers didn’t just ask people how they slept. They also used polysomnography and EEG measures, including N3 sleep proportion and delta wave power (Frontiers in Physiology).

That sounds promising. It is promising, in a narrow way.

But the narrow part matters. This was one small supervised trial with 67 analyzed participants, not proof of an insomnia cure. It wasn’t a replacement for cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia, or CBT-I. It wasn’t a sleep-apnea workaround. And because the control group kept its usual activity instead of getting a matched exercise or attention program, the trial can’t fully separate Tai Chi itself from routine, coaching, social contact, expectation, or just moving more.

Corn Leaf Extract and Sleep: What One Small Trial Can and Can't Say

Mon, 07 Sep 2026 11:10:00 +0700

A corn leaf sleep study sounds like the sort of thing the internet could flatten into bad advice by lunchtime.

That’s why this one needs a careful read. A 2026 Food Science & Nutrition randomized, triple-blind, placebo-controlled parallel trial tested a standardized corn leaf extract called Maizinol, or CLE, for 28 days in 80 otherwise healthy adults who said they had trouble falling asleep or staying asleep (2026 Food Science & Nutrition trial; PubMed record).

And yes, the trial reported some objective sleep improvements. But no, that doesn’t make corn leaf extract an insomnia treatment. It doesn’t make Maizinol a natural sleeping pill. It doesn’t tell anyone to copy the study protocol at home.

The useful takeaway is narrower - one specific extract, one short trial, selected adults, and sleep measurements that look more interesting on objective tracking than on subjective sleep-quality scores.

Insomnia on Alternative Medicine Zone

Tai Chi for Better Sleep in Older Adults? The New Deep-Sleep Signal Needs Careful Reading

Corn Leaf Extract and Sleep: What One Small Trial Can and Can't Say