By Amy Norton HealthDay Reporter

THURSDAY, Oct. 10 (HealthDay News) -- Practicing yoga may not ease menopausal hot flashes, but it might help women sleep a bit easier, a new clinical trial suggests.

Right now, hormone therapy is the most effective treatment for the hot flashes and night sweats many women develop as they go through menopause. But hormones have been linked to risks like blood clots and heart attack, so many women want alternatives.

Some small studies have suggested that yoga can reduce the frequency and severity of hot flashes -- possibly by calming nervous system activity. But that was not the case in this latest trial, which randomly assigned 249 women to either take gentle yoga classes for 12 weeks, or stick with their usual activities.

By the study's end, women in the yoga group were having fewer hot flashes each day -- but so were those in the comparison group.

On the other hand, the yoga practitioners did seem to be sleeping better.

"For the time being, there seems to be little sound evidence that yoga is helpful for hot flashes," said lead researcher Katherine Newton, of the Group Health Research Institute in Seattle.

"However, we did find yoga to be modestly helpful for insomnia," Newton added. That's important, she noted, because sleep problems are one of the most common reasons that women seek some kind of treatment as they go through menopause.

"If insomnia is bothering a woman," Newton said, "this style of gentle yoga, practiced regularly, may be of benefit."

The study was funded by the U.S. National Institutes of Health and recently published online in the journal Menopause.

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Yoga Fails to Cool Hot Flashes, But May Aid Sleep