I am not disciplined enough to meditate every day. I have tried so many different kinds of meditation over the past two years. My favorite one is where you just observe your thoughts for as long as you can. Eventually, my mind gets tired of thinking of the past or imagining things in the future. It gets quieter. It takes more than an hour to get there and I don’t have the time to do that every morning. Although meditation has proven positive effects on the brain and behavior, the results are not immediate. Therefore, it is harder to stay motivated to sit in the stew of thoughts every morning.
I recently came across a study done on non-experienced meditators, which showed how brief, daily meditation enhances attention, memory, mood, and emotional regulation. I was listening to the Huberman lab podcast episode, he referred to this study as he was explaining meditation as one of the tools to improve focus and concentration. It motivated me to start my morning meditation again. It has only been two weeks but this time I am determined not to break my routine for at least 8 weeks. Below is a brief summary of the study.
Study Populations
- The study included a total of 42 subjects, between the age of 18 to 45.
- The subjects were healthy, non-smokers, and had no current or prior neurological or mental health issues diagnosis.
- It only included non-experienced meditators. They were disqualified if they had a mediation practice more than once per week for the past three months.
Study Design
The 42 subjects were randomly assigned into 2 groups.
- Experimental group: Listened to 13 minutes of guided meditation every day for 8 consecutive weeks. The 13-min guided meditation called Journey Meditation, developed by Stephen Sokoler included a variety of breathing exercises and full-body scans.
- Control group: Listened to 13 minutes of a podcast every day for 8 consecutive weeks. The 13-min sections for podcasts were taken from radiolab. Podcasts included narratives from biology, sociology, astronomy, cultural trends, and economics, and were screened to ensure that they did not discuss meditation practices.
When was the assessment done?
All participants had a clinical visit at the beginning of the study, at 4 weeks, and end of the study i.e. 8 weeks. The cognitive functioning and mood states of the participants from both groups were measured and compared at these three time points.
What was measured in study?
Each participant’s mood, cognitive, and physiological assessments were done using the following tests:
Mood assessment: Included a variety of standardized, online questionnaires to assess mood, emotion, and affective states.
Neuropsychological assessment: assessed functioning of the prefrontal cortex and hippocampus using a series of six tests.
N-Back Task: prefrontal cortex-dependent task tests the capacity for short-term memory.
Reading Span Task: dual-processing test, dependent on the prefrontal cortex, assesses short-term memory.
Wisconsin Card Sorting Task: to assess prefrontal cortex functioning and new areas, including the parietal lobe and even subcortical structures like the basal ganglia, tests the capacity for cognitive flexibility.
Stroop Color and Word Task: assesses both attention and the inhibition of cognitive interference, which is dependent on the prefrontal cortex.
Eriksen Flanker Task: This prefrontal cortex task tests attention and response inhibition abilities.
Mnemonic Similarity Task: This is a hippocampal-dependent task that tests both recognition memory and pattern separation abilities.
Behavioral and physiological response to an acute stressor
Trier social stress test (TSST): used to assess the effects of meditation on social stress responsiveness.
Salivary cortisol collection and analysis: To assess the effect of meditation on baseline cortisol levels, saliva samples were taken at the beginning of the pre-, mid-, and post-intervention visits.
Results
Baseline or pre-intervention visit
No significant difference in values of mood questionnaires, cognitive tasks, and cortisol measurements between the meditation and the podcast group.
Midpoint or 4 weeks visit
No significant difference in values of mood questionnaires, cognitive tasks, and cortisol measurements between the meditation and the podcast group.
Post-intervention or 8 weeks visit
- Mood assessment: Meditators compared to the podcast-listening group showed decreased negative mood states including decreases in mood disturbance, anxiety, and fatigue scores.
- Cognitive functioning: Meditators compared to the podcast-listening group showed enhanced attention (as measured by the Stroop Task), working memory (as measured by the N-Back Task), and recognition memory (as measured by the recognition component of the Mnemonic Similarity Task).
- Stress assessment: Meditators compared to the podcast-listening group showed a decrease in the behavioral anxiety response to the Trier social stress test.
- Sleep quality: Meditators compared to the podcast-listening group showed a reduction in overall sleep quality. Investigators hypothesize that this effect may be due to the timing of meditation versus podcast listening. Meditators listened to more sessions before bedtime (defined as the hours of 8 P.M. to 3 A.M.) compared to the podcast group.
Key take away:
- Don’t meditate before bedtime.
- Do some kind of meditation (breathing, focused, body scan) every day for at least 13 minutes.
- It takes at least 8 weeks to see any effect on mood, cognitive functioning, or stress.
Thanks for reading!
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