Meditation Group Research Articles

Physiological and subjective effects of Zen meditation and demand characteristics.

Forty male undergraduate volunteers were assigned to one of four groups. During the treatment period, the control group was asked to “just sit there.” The deactivation demand, neutral demand, and activation demand groups were shown a videotape demonstrating the Zen meditation exercise “counting breaths” and modeling and suggesting relaxation outcome, no specific outcome, and arousal outcome for each group, respectively. A baseline period preceded and a recovery period followed treatment. Respiration rate and electromyogram decreased and heart rate increased, then gradually declined for the meditation groups during the treatment period. Differences among groups in self-reported mood were not statistically reliable. Results show that Zen meditation produces small physiological changes in naive, unpracticed subjects.

Meditation training as a treatment for insomnia

A set of attention-focusing techniques derived from methods of meditation was compared with progressive relaxation and a waiting list as treatments for insomnia. Analysis of data from 24 insomniacs recruited from the community showed both meditation and progressive relaxation to be superior to no treatment in reducing latency of sleep onset. These treatments did not differ in effectiveness. At 6 months follow-up, both the meditation and progressive relaxation groups showed significant improvement over pretreatment levels on latency of sleep onset, while pretreatment and follow-up means for the control group did not differ.

A Controlled Study of the EEG During Transcendental Meditation: Comparison With Hypnosis

A controlled, quantitative investigation of the electroencephalogram (EEG) and transcendental meditation (TM) revealed that EEG changes during TM were rarely as pronounced or consistent as previous reports suggest. There was considerable variation between subjects, some displaying no EEG changes at all during TM compared with an equal period of non-meditation. Any changes that did occur in a particular individual were not necessarily repeated in a subsequent session. A comparison of mean EEG parameters of the experimental group revealed no consistent significant differences between meditation and non-meditation, although trends towards increased theta and decreased beta activity during meditation were apparent. The biggest differences in mean EEG parameters were between subject groups. In particular, the group of meditators exhibited significantly more theta activity (during both TM and non-meditation) than a randomly selected group of individuals that had never meditated or been hypnotized. The EEG characteristics of the group of meditators were similar to those of a group of subjects experienced in self-hypnosis. It is concluded that the most obvious EEG changes during meditation are long-term. In people who regularly practise TM (or self-hypnosis), the EEG gradually (over weeks or months) tends to "slow down." Such a "slowed down" EEG is apparent during both normal waking conditions and altered states of consciousness in these individuals.

The reported sleep characteristics of meditators and nonmeditators

A sleep questionnaire was administered to a group of experienced meditators and to an appropriate control group. Meditators reported that they awakened in the morning more rested than nonmeditators. Meditators also reported more dreaming and a rnore positive quality in their dream content.