Abstract
Background: The medical students experience a lot of stress, which increase when they appear for internal assessment examination. Yoga as an anxiolytic tool which has been practiced over centuries in India.

Aims and Objectives: To assess the efficacy of yoga in increasing the cognitive performance in medical students after practicing it for 6 months.

Materials and Methods: A comparative study was conducted in the Department of Physiology, MNR Medical College and Hospital, Sangareddy, Medak District, Telangana, India. A total number of 80 medical students who were ready to undergo their first internal examinations were selected. Students were randomly assigned to four groups and were given a 60-min session on pranayama and suryanamaskar. Group I, Control group, was not underwent any kind of yoga during the study period and were given a lecture on stress reduction, practice of meditation without any yoga instructions, Group II, study Group, who can practice only pranayama, Group III who can practice only suryanamaskar and Group IV practices both pranayama and suryanamaskar. The investigator who was unaware of the groups had taken the Addenbrooke’s Cognitive Examination-Revised questionnaire of the students two times (a) before appearing for internal examination and (b) after immediately appearing for examination and both were compared after 6 months of yoga for their improvement in cognitive functions. Statistical analysis was performed using analyses of variance (ANOVA) by SPSS V.16.

Results: The statistical results showed a significant improvement in the Group A compared to Group B (ANOVA; P < 0.001).

Conclusions: This study concludes that yogic breathing and yogic postures (suryanamaskar) has a significant effect on the reduction of
anxiety level and improvement in cognitive functions of medical students.

Key words: Medical Students; Pranayama; Suryanamaskar; Stress; Cognitive Function; Yoga