Meditation-based therapies for stress, anxiety and depression have been making a comeback since the 1990s. Mindfulness meditation, in particular, has so thoroughly infiltrated mainstream psychiatry that mindfulness-based approaches have been called the "Third Wave of Behavior Therapies." At this point, there isn't too much question about whether mindfulness meditation is helpful for distress. The main focus for researchers now is why and how it works, and through what mechanism.
Does meditation improve depression by improving sleep? Being a clinical psychologist with an interest in both depression and sleep, I have spent the last several years investigating whether meditation-related improvements might be mediated by improvements in sleep. The idea seemed obvious: Poor sleep is a symptom of depression and it is also a risk factor for developing depression or relapsing. Meditation techniques, including mindfulness, have been found to calm the sympathetic nervous system's "fight or flight response" and decrease worry and rumination -- all the things that interfere with good sleep. But does meditation improve sleep? My first thought was "of course!"
Like any good American, I went online and Googled "Meditation + Sleep" and came up with nearly six million hits, the majority praising the sleep-promoting effects of meditation ("Meditation, a natural sleep aid") and selling meditation-based sleep products ("Achieve a better night's sleep with meditation techniques") -- many from medical professionals ("Sleeplessness? M.D. offers self-help tips and sleep meditation CD").
Based on the internet, it looks like meditation is great for sleep. Time to take a closer look at the scientific research...
How to Evaluate the Claims: Not All Research Is Equal
There are two general types of meditation studies: cross-sectional studies and longitudinal studies. Cross-sectional studies compare experienced meditators with non-meditators and are good place to start, but they can have hidden confounds that can obscure firm conclusions.
For example, if you compared a group of regular exercisers to non-exercisers and found that they were healthier, it would be easy to conclude that exercise makes you healthy. But what is not known is whether the exercisers also eat healthier diets, smoke or drink less or if the non-exercisers had a pre-existing health problem that prevented them from exercising.
The same problem applies to cross-sectional studies of meditators; it is unknown if the meditators were happier, less stressed or better sleepers before they started meditating, or whether they engage more in other health-promoting behaviors. Because of this, researchers put more value in longitudinal studies that measure sleep before and after learning meditation in people who have never meditated before.
It's also important that the longitudinal study is a "randomized controlled trial," or RCT, where half of the subjects are randomly allocated to the meditation group and the other half don't meditate. This helps control for effects that are based on expectancy (hope of trying something new) or increased familiarity with the measures over time.
A Review of the Science Comes up Lacking
When I followed up the enthusiastic Google claims on the scientific research database Medline, the evidence was less compelling. Only a handful of longitudinal studies had investigated the effects of mindfulness meditation on sleep. Nearly all the studies found an improvement in self-reported sleep following meditation, but when a control group was added, the meditation group didn't improve more than the control condition, which was usually a wait-list.
What was even more discouraging about the existing research was that they relied on self reports -- either a general rating of sleep quality, or an average of daily diaries. None of the studies used what is considered the "Gold Standard" of sleep research, the polysomnographic sleep study, which measures brainwaves (EEG), eye-movements and muscle tone overnight in a laboratory.
The next step was obvious: Do a longitudinal randomized control trial with laboratory-based polysomnographic sleep measures in a depressed population with sleep complaints. Twenty-six medication-free individuals with a history of depression were randomized into either an eight week mindfulness meditation program called "Mindfulness-based Cognitive Therapy" or a wait-list control condition. All participants underwent in-lab sleep recordings before and after the treatment condition and filled out daily sleep diaries.
Meditation and Sleep Diaries Equally Beneficial for Self-Reported Sleep
According to sleep diaries, self-reported sleep improved following mindfulness meditation, just like in the other studies. But again, when compared to the control group, the effect disappeared. Filling out daily sleep diaries (but not meditating) was just as beneficial for sleep as meditation. When the act of measurement changes what is measured, we call that the "Hawthorne Effect." In this case, increased attention to daily sleep habits may have changed the participants' perception of their sleep quality or subtly encouraged them to adapt healthier sleep schedules. Thus, confirming previous studies, it does not appear that mindfulness meditation is especially good for improving (self-reported) sleep.
Results from the Sleep Lab
Even though the meditators said they were sleeping better, results from laboratory-based sleep and brain recordings told a different story. Contrary to our hypotheses that meditation would improve and deepen sleep, we found that meditation was associated with several indices of increased wakefulness and decreased sleep propensity, including more awakenings and stage one sleep (a lighter stage of sleep) and less stage three and four or "slow-wave sleep" (a deeper stage of sleep) compared to controls.
Even more compelling was the dose-response relationship between meditation practice amount and increases in wakefulness: the more one meditated, the more awake one's brain became.
Paradox and Promise
Before we jump to the conclusion that meditation makes sleep worse, it is important to mention that the increased wakefulness in the brain was associated with improvements in depression. The people who meditated the most (at least 30 minutes per day) had more wakeful brains and were less depressed, but also reported sleeping better. Interestingly, this paradoxical pattern of improvements in self-reported sleep and mood with a corresponding increase in brain wakefulness is also seen in depressed patients who respond positively to SSRI's like Prozac.
Be careful
Like most research, these findings provoke many more questions than they answer, but it's important not to speculate and to stick to the original question: Does meditation improve sleep? Our results, along with other longitudinal studies -- which have only examined mindfulness meditation and not other techniques -- do not support the widespread claims that meditation promotes better, deeper sleep. Much more research is needed. The take home message is that sometimes popular enthusiasm outpaces scientific research, and consumers should be as educated as possible about how to evaluate the evidence.
Tip: Always go to the original source: A detailed scientific report of this study can be found here.
www.brown.edu/Faculty/Contemplative_Studies_Initiative/resources.html
scroll down to "When Empirical Science Trumps Popular Assumptions The Case of Meditation and Sleep"
Willoughby Britton, Ph.D.
As a teacher of meditation I have been studying the scientific data on mindfulness, zen, Transcendental Meditation and several other meditation techniques. I have discovered that different meditation practices effect the brain and physiology in different ways. Mindfulness has its own unique brain wave signature which is different from concentration techniques and transcendental meditation. It's really fascinating to see how the brain changes according to the mental technique being practiced. I look forward to more comparative research on meditation and it's benefits for sleep.
The presupposition that self reporting is less valuable is questionable. From the perspective of a insomniac, which is more profound – feeling rested, or polysomnographic measurements? The latter may be the Gold Standard for researchers, but for someone suffering from insomnia, feeling refreshed is the more valuable currency.
During meditation the mind is awake, but the body rests very profoundly. Early studies suggested that meditators can be resting four times more deeply than sleep (Scientific American, Vol 226, 1972). It’s no surprise that regular meditators feel better and report a need for less sleep.
As to “…the more one meditated, the more awake one's brain became.†This is the very essence of the practice – to awaken our awareness. There is a story about Siddhartha Gautama that illuminates this perspective – when approached by a devotee and asked “What are you? Are you a saint or a god?†the Buddha simply replied, “I am awake.â€
So when asked “does meditation improve sleep?†we must counter with – “Does meditation deliver clarity, well-being and wakefulness?†The answer, based both on subjective personal reports and on four decades of scientific research is unequivocally, yes.
Sincerely,
Michael Miller
http://www.NewYorkMeditationCenter.com
This is a good case of a researcher asking the wrong question. The question is not, "does meditation promote better (defined as deeper and longer) sleep?" The question is, "How, in what ways and to what extent does meditation help those who suffer from depression?"
Obesity and sleeplessness are directly linked; each causes the other.
If you have trouble sleeping, lose weight. Stop eating grains and their products (flour, bread, etc).
And NO ARTIFICIAL SWEETENERS: they cause insulin release, obesity and sleeplessness.
"Animal studies have indicated that artificial sweeteners can cause body weight gain. A sweet taste induces an insulin response, which causes blood sugar to be stored in tissues (including fat)"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sugar_substitute
This also raises the question as to which really IS more accurate: a person's self-evaluation, or a machine's? And are these particular machines measuring the real indicators of sleep quality? Shouldn't tests be done to measure a person's ability to complete tasks, perform specific mental operations, etc. after waking, rather than just relying on "traditional" measurements of brainwaves, muscle tension, etc while sleeping to determine how well a person is sleeping?
Being a devoted meditator myself, I would be inclined to support the idea that meditation aids a healthy nights sleep - even being a tool in itself during the more restless nights to fall asleep (when waking in the dark of night, concerned about trivialities, I try to enter a meditative state of mind, in that I calm my thoughts to silence so I can fall back asleep).
I would be interested to hear what more comes of this research, and the results of all future research into the relationship of meditation on sleep, but regardless, the health benefits afforded by developing and keeping a strong meditation practice are tangible. Personally I found that my blood pressure dropped, I became a lot more relaxed and accepting of life / life's events, and my concentration and focus gained more clarity and sharpness. Ultimately, meditation helps to keep me grounded when life gets too chaotic, or self doubt haunts me.
Many thanks for a wonderful article.
Peace and much love
Lara Jane
Founder of the Ultimate Lifestyle Project
http://ultimatelifestyleproject.com/mind-body-soul
I pick up my pipe, pack it with the medical mj I grow, smear some hash oil on top that I make, puff away, put on some Joss Stone, mellow out, crawl into bed, and zone out.
I didn't have to join a group, practice any kind of religion, or pay some specialist. Now please excuse me as I get ready for bed:))
First thing I wake up, I pack a bowl or three, maybe eat some pot cookies or get the roommate to give me a massage with some medicated olive oil, and check out the HuffPost. .
I'm a medical patient who grows his own and makes his own oils, butters, foods, etc.
Helps to sleep. Nice to wake n bake. Unfortunately, I live in Utah, so no legal availability. Yet.
You are a lucky man
Job Search
www.bestsampleresume.com/jobs
http://ultimatelifestyleproject.com/developing-peaceful-mind/
Peace and much love
Lara