Fellow PsychologyToday.com blogger Christine Meinecke PhD on the “S” word in marriage – it ain’t sex
Enjoy this article.

By Christine Meinecke, PhD

As much as we wish it were not so or seek to dress this wolf in sheep’s clothing, marriage (like any committed relationship) involves obligation.  No amount of denial, bargaining, anger or depression allows us to escape this reality.  We all sense it – the burden of knowing that we “owe” our spouse something.  But exactly what is it that we owe?  Sex?  Paychecks?  Childcare and household chores?  Emotional support?

In the beginning (while we’re in the neurochemically-altered state of infatuation), we feel neither obligated nor burdened.  We believe that we have found the one person with whom we will endlessly enjoy free give-and-take and positive feelings.  As infatuation fades, however, perspectives change.

Incompatibilities steal focus and disenchantment confronts us.  Give-and-take and positive feelings no longer seem effortless.  We struggle to find a satisfying balance between freedom to meet our own needs and wants and responsibility to consider our spouse’s needs and wants.  We do what comes naturally, and the situation worsens. We seek the counsel of outsiders and try their occasionally contradictory dos and don’ts, and further complicate things.

Enough already!  It’s not that complicated. There is only one marital obligation – self-responsibility.

Self-responsible Spouse

Everybody Marries the Wrong Person presents the new marriage paradigm, Self-responsible Spouse.  Self-responsible spouses emotionally grow themselves up.  Self-responsible spouses channel energy toward managing their own expectations and reactions, dark moods and insecurities.  Self-responsible spouses no longer subject their partners to scrutiny, criticism, and demands that they become more like their idealized “right person.”  (For details, see previous posts – “New Marriage Paradigm – Self-responsible Spouse,”  “How to Train Your Dragon,”  “Is your partner a matrimonial slacker?”)

Practicing self-responsibility brings couples as close as humanly possible to a marital state of grace.  Neither spouse keeps track of what is sacrificed or what is owed.  Both spouses fulfill the obligation to grow themselves up.

Fourteenth-century Sufi poet Hafiz puts it this way:

Even

After

All this time

The Sun never says

To the Earth,

“You owe me.”

Look

What happens

With a love like that.

It lights the

Whole

Sky.

For more about the book, visit:www.everybodymarriesthewrongperson.com

For additional information regarding this article, click HERE.

“For fast acting relief, try slowing down.” – Lily Tomlin (written by Jane Wagner)

By Susan Kaiser Greenland

In my humble opinion, bringing the transformative practice of mindful awareness to children, teens and their families could revolutionize the world as we know it. There are great educational programs that teach valuable life-skills cradle to grave. But it’s tough to use those life-skills in a crisis or other difficult situation unless you can: (a) Attend in a clearheaded way to inner and outer experience; (b) Tolerate any emotional discomfort that comes up in response to what you see; and (c) Purposefully respond in a way that is kind and compassionate to yourself and others. When kids, teens and adults systematically develop these three capacities through mindful awareness – attention, balance and compassion – they transform themselves and are better able to transform our world into a more peaceful, collaborative and caring place.

I just got back from an inspiring weekend with 300 educators interested in mindfulness and education. Hosted by the Omega Institute, our faculty (led by Jon Kabat Zinn with Gina Biegel, Jennifer Cohen, Vinnie Ferraro, Laurie Grossman, Linda Lantieri, Daniel Rechtschaffen, Dan Siegel, Spring Washam, and me) taught games, activities and songs that help develop mindful awareness at an early age. In panel discussions, we shared our perspectives on how best to build and implement programs suitable for public education. Home from the conference, and back to my workaday life, there are a few things we discussed that are important to share with a wider community.

1. Motivation. Be clear about why you’re teaching mindful awareness in the first place. The answer may be different depending on the teacher, but before stepping into a classroom know your objective. For me, it is to share tools that help people of all ages manage life’s ups and downs in a way that’s in their best interest as well as kind and compassionate to all those involved.

2. Perspective. Mindfulness in everyday life is not a religion, so don’t approach it as one. While this work is informed by contemplative traditions it is also informed by child development, psychology, neuroscience, and pedagogy. Leave any remnants of religion at home, be they implicit messages, gestures, language, or icons. They are not appropriate in public schools.

3. Simplicity. Use simple, clear language and activities that communicate simple, clear concepts and experiences. Some of the language and many of the activities that are useful when teaching mindfulness to adults go right over the heads of kids and young adults. Adapting mindful awareness games and activities for a younger audience can be a fun opportunity to express your creativity.

4. Play. Speaking of fun, we’re working with kids so let’s be playful! We can develop mindful awareness singing, dancing, laughing and playing. If we frame mindful awareness playfully kids are more likely to be drawn to it than if we frame mindful awareness as a serious, sedentary activity. Besides, there’s nothing wrong with having a bit of fun ourselves.

5. Integration. If one of your objectives is to help people better manage life’s ups and downs, don’t forget to integrate mindfulness into everyday activities. The more we include mindful awareness in our daily routines, the more accessible it will be and available for kids to call upon to help cope with challenging real-life situations.

6. Collaboration. Not everyone in this growing field agrees with me or with the seven points that I’m outlining here. But to take this work to the next level, and demonstrate why it’s important to those who need to be convinced, we’ll have to put our differences aside and work together for the benefit of everyone – students, teachers, families – absolutely everyone without exception.

7. Strategy. Congressman Tim Ryan is the first national politician to see the importance of mindful awareness training and act on it. To borrow from my students: “Let’s give it up for Congressman Ryan!” We need more big-picture thinkers to join him and develop a comprehensive strategy for researching and developing secular mindful awareness programs and implementing them in public settings.

To read the original article at HuffingtonPost.com, click HERE.

Excellent brief article on meditation and neuroplasticity. Keep in mind, though, that David Lynch’s foundation focuses on Trascendental Meditation, which, for me, has provided less compelling scientific evidence for the kinds of brain changes I advocate than mindfulness meditation.

By Jeanne Ball

As we go through life, our brain is always changing and adapting, say neuroscientists. During the first 18-20 years of life the brain is developing circuits that will form the basis of decision-making for a lifetime. Brain researchers have found that unhealthy lifestyles can inhibit normal brain development in adolescents and lead to impaired judgment and destructive behavior that carries over into adulthood. Traumatic experiences, alcohol and drug abuse, growing up neglected in a broken home, living in fear of violence and crime, or even a bad diet can interfere with development of the frontal lobes, the brain’s executive system. This can cause behavioral problems. Brain researcher Dr. Fred Travis explains: “When a person’s frontal lobes don’t develop properly, he lives a primitive life. He doesn’t — and can’t — plan ahead. His world is simplistic, and he can only deal with what’s happening to him right now. Thinking becomes rigid: ‘You’re either with me or against me,’ or ‘Me and my gang are good, and everyone else is bad.’”

The good news: meditation improves brain function

Brain researchers have also found that the brain can be changed in a positive direction through healthy lifestyle choices. This ability of the brain to reorganize its network of neurons is called “neuroplasticity.” Studies recently published in Cognitive Processing show that brain development can be enhanced — not only during adolescence but at any age — through the practice of meditation, and that different meditation techniques have different effects on the brain. For example, during the Transcendental Meditation (“TM”) technique there is increased alpha coherence in the brain’s frontal areas. “Within a few months of practice of the TM technique,” says Travis, “we see high levels of integration of frontal brain connectivity. And interestingly, that integration does not disappear after meditation. Increasingly and over time, this orderly brain functioning is found in daily activity.”

When the different parts of the brain are better integrated they work together more harmoniously — our brain is healthier. Higher levels of brain integration are associated with higher moral reasoning, emotional stability and decreased anxiety, according to a 1981 study in the International Journal of Neuroscience. Research shows that world-class athletes have higher brain integration than controls. Brain integration is important because one’s environment and circumstances are constantly shifting, and you need a flexible, integrated brain to successfully evaluate where you are, where you want to be and the necessary steps to get there.

Keeping your prefrontal cortex “online”

The prefrontal cortex — said to be the brain’s executive center or “CEO” — plays a crucial role in higher judgment, discrimination and decision-making. When we are overly tired or under intense mental, emotional or physical stress, our brain tends to bypass its higher, more evolved rational executive circuits, defaulting to more primitive stimulus/response pathways. We respond to challenges without thinking, making impulsive, shortsighted decisions. When the brain’s CEO goes “offline,” strong emotions such as fear and anger can adversely color or distort our perception of the world. Interestingly, the brain’s crucial frontal area is where the highest levels of EEG coherence are typically recorded during TM practice, indicating improved communication between the prefrontal cortex and other parts of the brain.

When a person transcends during meditation (goes beyond the active levels of the mind), the experience is commonly reported as a state of deep silence and inner wakefulness, without particular qualities or attributes — just pure consciousness. According to research studies, such as the previously mentioned study in Cognitive Processing, it is this ‘transcendental’ experience that creates the more efficient, integrated brain functioning seen during TM practice. While focused attention and other mental processes activate local brain areas, the experience of transcending activates the whole brain, enabling different parts of the brain to function together better as a whole.

Helping kids grow healthier brains

Fortunately, transcending is easy — we’re hardwired for it. With proper instruction and right practice, anyone can do it, including students with ADHD. Experiencing the quiet, transcendental field of orderliness deep within the mind doesn’t mean conjuring up a new outlook on life or accepting new beliefs, nor does it require an attitude change. It’s a natural, universal experience that produces a healthy response in the brain.

With help from the David Lynch Foundation and other private benefactors, thousands of at-risk students are now learning meditation during structured, in-school programs around the world. Researchers monitoring the results are finding that meditation improves learning ability, memory, creativity and IQ. Findings such as these may be opening a new frontier of research — establishing an expanded, more enlightened view about what is possible for the human brain.

VIDEO of Dr. Fred Travis, Director, Center for Brain, Consciousness, and Cognition in Fairfield, Iowa:

To read the original article at HuffingtonPost.com click HERE

Nice to laugh along with Gotham Chopra (Deepak Chopra’s son) about meditation.

A series of new studies have recently come out touting the benefits of teaching kids to meditate.

Well stop right there: allow me to say with utmost humility – here stands the expert.

My sister Mallika and I learned to meditate when we were about four and seven years old respectively (she’s older). This was early on in my father’s discovery phase of the transcendental meditation movement. Contrary to popular belief, he was not always the go-to-Guru that many now see him as. He was in fact a chain smoking, hard drinking, cantankerous by-the-book old school physician who ironically had little faith in the older school ways of alternative medicine and stress relieving techniques like meditation. Alas, on somewhat of a lark he discovered a TM Center in Cambridge Mass not far from where we lived and he worked and figured he may as well give the hippie delight a try.

And so began our regular attendance to group meditations and lectures down at the TM Center on Mass. Ave where while our parents meditated endlessly, Mallika and I (and numerous other kids of recently recruited meditators – my dad has always had an instinct for starting movements himself) were forced to entertain ourselves in spartanly furnished rooms that smelled of broccoli and tofu.

Soon enough, we too were brought into the (meditation) circle. It started with my father offering us a dollar for every minute we were able to stay completely silent. Mallika of course was a natural at it and she quickly amassed a great fortune. I, on the other hand, struggled greatly with such discipline, though I did eventually discover numerous loopholes – as in while I couldn’t say anything, I was not barred from making noise with other parts of my body, nor did it mean I couldn’t watch TV while “meditating.”

This forced my father to up the ante which he needed to anyway (Mallika was already into triple figures by this time). So came a more traditional sitting technique for meditation. Staying still, ideally in lotus position – yeah right, with eyes closed repeating a “secret sound” or “word of wisdom.” My rambunctiousness had settled down some by now (I think I was about and meditation had its own appeal – my father told me that by meditating, I could eventually gain superpowers and end up like Superman or Batman. Hello!

Gradually it became clear that perhaps x-ray vision, spinning the world backwards on its access, and other such magnificent tricks may require lifetimes of focused meditation. And yet, there were in fact more attainable quests. In 1986 I was 11 years old, and I intensified my meditations all through the summer which seemed to be working as my team the Red Sox streaked through the regular season and then pulled off a miracle in the playoffs to reach the World Series. Then came Game 6 against the Mets. Bill Buckner, Mookie, (unsung goat Bob Stanley) etc etc. The benefits of Meditation became largely questionable and took a major hit as far as I was concerned. I was jaded.

Alas, I got back on the plan in subsequent years probably because by then heavy D was climbing the ranks of the TM Movement and had become somewhat of a star in cultural circles where all of a sudden things like Yoga were gaining momentum and trendy appeal. It was around that time that I was taught “advanced meditation techniques” during an intense series of group instructions back in those broccoli and tofu smelling rooms at the Cambridge TM Center. I think I can confidently claim to be the only teenager at the time who went directly from JV Football practice with a bunch of testosterone fueled teammates to hanging with born again vedantists who boldly believed that if we could just get something like 7000 people meditating at the same time, we could create world peace.

I’m not kidding. Now 16 years old, I went to DC for a two-week meditation course where we meditated like 9 hours a day, and then when we weren’t eating broccoli and tofu, talked about it for like another 9 hours. I was the youngest by about 6 years old, I believe. One guy described his feeling after a week of the course as if he were having a neverending orgasm.

“Yeah totally,” I agreed, not really having any idea what he was talking about.

The course culminated with our learning the “flying sutra” which basically was a sound that triggered spontaneous hopping – branded levitation. You’know the whole “awakening the kundalini” etc. At the time, it seemed some sort of miracle and I was really proud of myself for achieving such a feat. Over time, it became questionable what the real benefit was in being able to hop around a foam covered room with dozens of others.

Yeah, I’d say that was the summit of my adolescent meditation experience. Maybe it was because around that time was when my father started to untangle himself from the TM apparatus he’d become rather enmeshed in. Maybe it was because the whole 7000 people meditating in Fairfield Iowa didn’t create world peace after all, maybe it was that week in Fairfield Iowa, maybe it was that real orgasms were better than metaphorical meditational ones. In college, playing John Madden Football with my buddies seemed like a better usage of time than meditating all by myself. I was officially off the wagon.

Then I graduated and started working as a war correspondent in places like Pakistan, the West Bank, Chechnya, and other highly stressful global hotspots. Hanging out in these places, talking to the people who lived there, reporting on crumbling economies and suicide bombings and ancient hatreds, I started to get depressed, lose weight, and having chronic headaches. I treated them the way my father once had – I drank in various bars with other journos and smoked elaborate hookah pipes that offered sweet, though fleeting, relief. The eventual downside soon out-did the upside.

By then of course, my dad had been on Oprah and was a big deal. He’d personally taught Elizabeth Taylor, Michael Jackson, Madonna, and the dictator of Zaire how to meditate. Hey – I knew how to do that! I could even hop around foam covered rooms if there was one available in Gaza! I decided to give it a spin…

And alas, it worked! I cleaned up my life, even group meditated with Madonna!

I’ve been back on that wagon for about ten years now and I think I’m somewhat addicted to my meds (I stole that line from my late friend MJ – go ahead and unpack that one of all its ironies…). I try to meditate at least once a day, sometimes when I just wake up around 530 AM, sometimes in my office around 530 PM. I also consider my regular bike rides in the canyons near where I live their own meditation, as are my early AM walks with my little mutt Cleo.

As a born again meditator, I can now point to tangible benefits – since I re-started meditating, the Patriots have won 3 Superbowls, and the Sox 2 world series. Yeah!

I noticed in a bunch of ads recently for the upcoming movie Eat, Pray, Love that Julia Roberts is sitting in lotus (damn her!) meditating in some beautiful Indian monestary. I couldn’t help but laugh at just how trendy meditation has become. She looks like she’s really enjoying it though, must be the neverending orgasm thing.  And now I am faced with my own dilemma, whether to take a stab at teaching meditation to my 3 year old. Inflation requires that I may have to up the ante from that old dollar a minute model. Then again, if I don’t say so myself, it seems to have been a worthy investment.

To read the original funny story at Intent.com click HERE

A fascinating talk by Jeremy Rifkin on “Empathy and Civilisation” – made all the more fascinating by the RSA animation.

More wisdom from Mark Brady, PhD, one of my favorite neuro-bloggers. My advice to just about everyone I meet: Don’t forget to breathe!

What if it turned out that most of the world’s problems could be traced to one simple, easily correctable deficit: impaired oxygenation. That much of the greed, wars, violence, health and financial crises, and assorted other human suffering was simply the inescapable result of insufficiently oxygenated brain tissue. Stick with me on this for a bit.

Fundamentally, you, me and all of us are going to die from the same single cause: lack of oxygen to the brain. Every death is ultimately the result of oxygen deprivation. If I get shot through the heart, my heart stops pumping freshly oxygenated blood to the brain and my brain stops working soon afterward. If I get lung cancer, rapidly replicating cells form tumors in my lungs. These tumors crowd out healthy tissue until my lungs are no longer able to supply oxygenated blood to my heart to transfer to my brain. Death results. If I smash my car into a bridge abutment with no airbags or seat belt, my head goes through the windshield and my brain smashes into the bridge concrete. Oxygen is suddenly deprived of a brain to travel to. My life comes to an end.

The Breathing Benefits of Sleep

So, oxygen is the gas of life. One of the many benefits of sleep is that we get to breathe in a regular, uninterrupted fashion for an extended period of time, systematically refueling the brain. My guess is that restful sleep has a positive effect on the generation and connectivity of neurons as well. Interestingly, as might be predicted, once their disorder was corrected, research on kids with sleep-disordered breathing showed marked improvement by way of reduced hyperactivity, increased attention spans and less daytime sleepiness. Getting better sleep seems to have positively affected their brains.

So, how well we’re able to breathe at night affects our functioning during the day. Is it too far a stretch to imagine that how we breathe during the day might also profoundly affect us during the day as well?

A Little Death in Every Breath

Suppose we die a kind of mini-death every time we involuntarily or unconsciously hold back an out-breath? Tai Chi Master William C. C. Chen believes that many of the activities of modern life work to constantly interrupt our natural breathing patterns. A random thought, a ringing cell phone, a honking car horn – all can cut an out-breath short, making us inhale before we’ve completely exhaled (I once had someone insult me by calling me a “shallow, mouth-breather!”).

Neurologist Bob Scaer argues that it’s the “Freeze Response” during which we hold our breath and immobilize our body, which results in retained traumatic memories ending up as collections of encapsulated neurons that he calls dissociation capsules. Such collections of neurons appear to go offline, temporarily lost to the network, significantly reducing processing power (Interestingly, L. Ron Hubbard, the creator of Scientology, identified these retained painful memories as engrams and, using an early biofeedback potentiometer he called the e-meter, actually found a way to activate and integrate the neurons holding these memories back into the network. I think this accounted for a lot of Scientology’s early popularity … the process of recalling memories and being able to give voice to them appears to be a process that successfully discharges the emotional reactivity of traumatic memories. Which is what Scientology did for people like Tom Cruise, Jerry Seinfeld, Van Morrison, Juliette Lewis, Sharon Stone and John Travolta. And because the brain is an associative organ, it’s easy to mistakenly associate and attribute healing processes and integrative experiences with the organization that orchestrated them. But, I digress).

Breath and Spirit

I don’t think it’s an accident that any number of spiritual traditions, martial arts and contemplative practices find various ways to practice and incorporate conscious attention to breathing. It is this attentive practice that allows us to add sustained, consistent day-breathing to the restorative night-breathing we do as a matter of course. My hypothesis would be that adding this resource, underwrites neural enrichment, facilitating more and more neural growth and connectivity. That resulting growth and connectivity would result in greater ease in managing daily stress, provide increased ability to move toward things that customarily make us anxious, and expand the neural base that we normally engage the world from.

Gaming the Breath

So what’s the takeaway? Essentially we can make a game with our kids out of paying closer attention to our breathing. We can begin to notice what kinds of interactions and experiences bring our breath up short; what kinds of thoughts bring the breath to a full stop; what the requirements are for being able to breathe fully in and fully out without restriction for five, ten, twenty breaths in a row. My hunch is it will affect us subtly at first, but with practice, over time, breath-remembering will begin to pay big dividends for heart, mind, body and brain. Could attaining lasting peace and ongoing prosperity really be that simple?

To read this fascinating article from it’s original source click HERE

By Daniel Tomasulo, Ph.D.

When there is no enemy within, the enemies outside cannot hurt you. — African Proverb

Although I am in the business of hope through understanding, hot meteors of negativity break through the atmosphere of my serenity and occasionally derail me. I am jealous, angry or judgmental, or sometimes indifferent or overwhelmed.

But more often than not these uncomfortable feelings are not meteors at all. They aren’t streaking across my mind and crashing into my psyche. Rather, they are a thick, murky fog of thoughts and feelings that slowly but steadily eclipse my optimism. And that’s only half of it. Then I feel bad for having the thoughts. This makes it worse. Now, regardless of the form they come in, the conflict moves to an inner theater. I’m aggravated at whatever got me going in the first place, and I’ve gotten myself in a headlock. I am a one-man wrestling extravaganza clinging onto these feelings while simultaneously attempting to break free of the crummy thoughts about others and myself. So the real enemy is inside me.

Mindfulness meditation is designed to help. The research on the impact of this meditation is fertile, and convincing. The contemplative awareness of meditation seems to be at the core of what can heal us. But wait. What is this that is in and around and alongside and embedded in this research on mindfulness? It is the Four Immeasurables. In addition to developing a practice of mindful awareness, Buddhist teachings encourage the cultivation of love, compassion, joy and equanimity: The Fab Four, I’d say. By immeasurable they mean unconditional. But don’t tell a scientist the thing he wants to understand is immeasurable.

Two groundbreaking books — The Compassionate Instinct: The Science of Human Goodness by Dacher Keltner, Jason Marsh, and Jeremy Adam Smith and Born To Be Good by Dacher Keltner have much to offer about understanding compassion. The research informs a perspective that compassion is part of our biology and is necessary for human evolution. We must cultivate compassion for ourselves and for others for our survival. Or, as the Dalai Lama says:

If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion.

There are also some intriguing studies from developmental psychology that set the stage for understanding the role compassion plays in our lives and in evolution. Psychologist Jack Nitschke found that mothers looking at pictures of their own babies reported feelings of compassionate love, but more than that, the mothers’ brains showed patterns of activity linked to positive emotions. This does not happen when the mothers look at others’ babies. Compassion, it seems, has direct evolutionary value. It is activated in a mother’s brain by their offspring.

Caring for your child is what allows a connection to be made, and the species to continue. Nancy Eisenberg, Richard Fabes, and Martin Hoffman found that children who were better adjusted and more helpful to their peers had compassionate parents who used reasoning and induction, and Pearl and Samuel Oliner found that parents could teach by example. It makes sense: Compassionate parents have children who will be more altruistic. There is also a difference in the capacity for compassion between children who are securely attached to their parents and those who are not. Everett Waters, Judith Wippman and Alan Sroufe found securely attached children had sympathy toward their peers by the time they were three and a half years old. Not surprisingly, Mary Main and Carol George found children with physically abusive parents had children with less empathy. There are also physiological changes in both children and adults when they feel compassion for others. Rather than fight or flight, their heart rate goes down to prepare to approach and calm the other.

Other studies show that people who lean forward or generate a friendly smile or hand gesture produce more oxytocin, the same chemical generated by breastfeeding and eating chocolate. Being compassionate toward others makes us feel good, which makes us want to be more compassionate. Yummy. But the study that intrigued me most was by Dacher Keltner:

In my experiment, I put two strangers in a room where they were separated by a barrier. They could not see one another, but they could reach each other through a hole. One person touched the other on the forearm several times, each time trying to convey one of 12 emotions, including love, gratitude, and compassion. After each touch, the person touched had to describe the emotion they thought the toucher was communicating. Imagine yourself in this experiment. How do you suppose you might do? Remarkably, people in these experiments reliably identified compassion, as well as love and the other ten emotions, from the touches to their forearm. This strongly suggests that compassion is an evolved part of human nature—something we’re universally capable of expressing and understanding.

Okay, so we are wired to be nice. But how does this help me when someone cuts me off on the New Jersey Turnpike? The answer, for me at least, was in a 2005 article published by the American Psychological Society by Mario Mikulincer and Phillip R. Shaver on attachment security and compassion. This research was linked to the idea that if children feel securely attached they are able to have more compassion. Other studies demonstrated that adults with a securely attached disposition had more compassion, but these researchers were able to experimentally activate representations of attachment security. They had subjects imagine feeling loved, safe and secure, or had them read loving stories. By doing this alone the participants felt less negativity, less threatened, and less discriminatory. Subjects in these studies also demonstrated more compassion, sympathy, and tenderness. I’m feeling better already.

Perhaps a moment or two of allowing yourself to feel the feelings of being loved can change your disposition when it is in need of a change. The (other) Fab Four from the 1960s were right: All you need is love; or memories of love, or even a few good stories. In fact, they hit it right on the head. As the Beatles professed, you can learn how to be you in time – It’s easy.

World peace must develop from inner peace. Peace is not just mere absence of violence. Peace is, I think, the manifestation of human compassion. — Dalai Lama, 1989 Nobel Laureate in peace

Daniel J. Tomasulo, Ph.D., TEP, MFA is a licensed psychologist specializing in group psychotherapy and psychodrama, and author of the new book, Confessions of a Former Child: A Therapist’s Memoir. Visit www.formerchild.com for more information.

To read the original article on Psychcentral.com click HERE

This is written by Ron Alexander – adapted from his newest book, Wise Mind, Open Mind: Finding Purpose and Meaning in Times of Crisis, Loss, and Change (New Harbinger Publications, 2009).

The majority of my clients resist mindfulness meditation at first, although the time commitment is small and the payoff is enormous. One insisted that it wasn’t necessary and that she didn’t have enough time in her day to devote to a regular practice. Then she went through the loss of a parent, and had such trouble coping that she couldn’t even drag herself out of bed. After missing work ten days straight, she called me for my advice. I told her to mindfully meditate while in bed. Terrified and bewildered, my client did and, in a few days, found that she could face going to work again. After that, whenever she was in an overwhelming state of grief or so distracted that she couldn’t focus, she would close her door, tell her assistant to hold all her calls and do a five minute meditation. Slowly, her grief lessened.

Typically, those who resist meditation are buying in to one of the following four common myths that create resistance to regular mindfulness meditation practice.

Myth 1: “Practicing mindfulness meditation will conflict with my religious beliefs.” The practice of mindfulness meditation is free of religious and spiritual dogma. In fact, if you believe in turning to God for guidance, you can use mindfulness meditation to set aside distractions and listen to the divine wisdom that can be found only when you tune out the endless chain of thoughts your own mind creates. This form of meditation turns down the volume of the chatter in your mind and allows you to tune in to deeper wisdom and insight. Mindfulness practice is a pathway to discovery that any of us can use, regardless of our religious or spiritual beliefs.

Myth 2: “I’m too restless and busy to learn to be quiet and practice any form of meditation.” Just twenty minutes on a meditation cushion twice each day will cause you to need less sleep, be more productive and less distracted, and make the most of your time during the day. When you first begin to meditate, you’re likely to experience many mental distractions. Rather than judge yourself; simply observe any disruptive thoughts, feelings, or sensations and set them aside. You’ll never have complete freedom from distractions, but with practice, it’ll be easier to quickly turn down the volume on them. As your concentration abilities increase, so will your mindstrength. Quickly, you’ll discover that you can simply rest and relax into the moment, enjoying the sense of spaciousness and abundance.

Myth 3: “If I practice mindfulness, it will put out the fire of my ambition and creativity.” Mindfulness practice seems to ground restless people, transforming their energy from a chaotic, even manic, discharge to a more focused and heightened exuberance that then can be channeled into productivity. If you’re uncomfortable with the thought of slowing down your mental output because you think you’ll lose something valuable, keep in mind that this is not the goal of mindfulness practice. Instead this approach will allow you to access some of the vitality and passion you associate with mania.

Myth 4: “If I practice mindfulness, what I’ll discover will be so upsetting that I’ll become paralyzed with fear.” The fear of what will arise from the subconscious isn’t entirely irrational, but the chances of experiencing intense discomfort while mindfully meditating are slim. Emotions that remain buried have no chance of dissipating, and will remain as an underlying toxin that affects the functioning of the mind and body. If you’ve been avoiding painful feelings and thoughts for a long time, you may not be able to handle more than a five-minute-long session of mindfulness meditation initially, and you may need someone with you to support you in your process of uncovering this pain. A skilled psychologist or mindfulness meditation teacher can be enormously helpful in guiding you through these emotions and modulating their intensity.

By cultivating mindfulness, you allow yourself to hear even the subtlest messages from the unconscious. You can be awakened with a gentle nudge instead of a splash of icy water. Embracing your circumstances despite the pain, you can craft a fulfilling life that’s infused with passion and originality, driven by a sense of purpose, and in sync with your values and priorities.

Ronald Alexander, Ph.D. is the author of the just released book, Wise Mind, Open Mind: Finding Purpose and Meaning in Times of Crisis, Loss, and Change. He is the director of the OpenMind Training® Institute, practices mindfulness-based mind-body psychotherapy and leadership coaching in Santa Monica, CA, for individuals and corporate clients. He has taught personal and clinical training groups for professionals in Integral Psychotherapy, Ericksonian mind-body healing therapies, mindfulness meditation, and Buddhist psychology nationally and internationally since 1970. (www.openmindtraining.com)

To download a copy of the PDF of this excerpt click HERE

Another brain/behavior study showing the benefits of meditation…

Abstract

Background

A number of benefits from meditation have been claimed by those who practice various traditions, but few have been well tested in scientifically controlled studies. Among these claims are improved performance and decreased sleep need. Therefore, in these studies we assess whether meditation leads to an immediate performance improvement on a well validated psychomotor vigilance task (PVT), and second, whether longer bouts of meditation may alter sleep need.

Methods

The primary study assessed PVT reaction times before and after 40 minute periods of mediation, nap, or a control activity using a within subject cross-over design.

This study utilized novice meditators who were current university students (n = 10). Novice meditators completed 40 minutes of meditation, nap, or control activities on six different days (two separate days for each condition), plus one night of total sleep deprivation on a different night, followed by 40 minutes of meditation.

A second study examined sleep times in long term experienced meditators (n = 7) vs. non-meditators (n = 23). Experienced meditators and controls were age and sex matched and living in the Delhi region of India at the time of the study. Both groups continued their normal activities while monitoring their sleep and meditation times.

Results

Novice meditators were tested on the PVT before each activity, 10 minutes after each activity and one hour later. All ten novice meditators improved their PVT reaction times immediately following periods of meditation, and all but one got worse immediately following naps. Sleep deprivation produced a slower baseline reaction time (RT) on the PVT that still improved significantly following a period of meditation. In experiments with long-term experienced meditators, sleep duration was measured using both sleep journals and actigraphy. Sleep duration in these subjects was lower than control non-meditators and general population norms, with no apparent decrements in PVT scores.

Conclusions

These results suggest that meditation provides at least a short-term performance improvement even in novice meditators. In long term meditators, multiple hours spent in meditation are associated with a significant decrease in total sleep time when compared with age and sex matched controls who did not meditate. Whether meditation can actually replace a portion of sleep or pay-off sleep debt is under further investigation.

Background

Meditative practices have gained increasing attention in the West over the past several decades. Previous studies on meditation have documented clear changes in the EEG that are distinct from sleep and typical wake, as well as a variety of other physiological changes [1-5]. The most dramatic and immediate change in the EEG is the dominance of alpha waves (8-12 Hz) across much of the cortex [3,6]. Although this ordinarily occurs with simple eyes-closed resting behavior, the magnitude of this change is greater during meditation. Furthermore, theta bursts appear more commonly during meditation. While meditation and eyes closed resting are not a state of sleep, the dominance of alpha waves has some superficial similarities to the dominance of delta waves (0.5-4 Hz) that occurs during deep non-REM sleep (relatively high voltage, synchronous waves). While a dominance of alpha or delta waves are generated by very different neural systems, they both reflect, ultimately, an increased synchronous firing pattern in cortical neurons as measured by the EEG [7,8]. The benefit (if any) of neurons firing together is unclear, but it may provide a time to re-set or optimize the brain for new tasks. Surprisingly, given the number of EEG studies on meditation, essentially no one has addressed whether meditation might provide a restorative function similar to non-REM sleep despite centuries of anecdotal claims by certain practitioners and followers that meditation does reduce the need for sleep [1,3,9]. In contrast, several studies have addressed whether meditation may affect the quality of subsequent sleep, and whether meditation may help those with insomnia fall asleep more easily [9-15].

A major difficulty in assessing whether meditation may be able to replace a portion of sleep, is that the functions of sleep are not well understood, and no direct measure of sleep-need exists. However, several indirect measures are available including Multiple Sleep Latency Tests (MSLT), Maintenance of Wakefulness Tests (MWT), EEG variables such as delta power during non-REM sleep, or performance measures such as the Psychomotor Vigilance Task (PVT). Performance on virtually all tests declines with decreasing amounts of sleep, ranging from driving skills to simple reaction time [16]. The PVT, as used in this study, requires the subject to monitor a LED display and hit a button as soon as it starts counting, and to respond repeatedly at random intervals over a ten minute time period. Typical response times range from about 180 msec to 300 msec in well rested subjects, with almost no lapses, while reaction times and lapses increase with increasing sleep debt [17].

As a first step, we began with a simpler question, asking whether meditation could provide an immediate improvement in PVT performances under conditions of very mild (normal afternoon levels) and severe sleep debt (no sleep for one night), respectively. We compared the same subjects following forty minute bouts of meditation, nap, or control activity on multiple days. Since forty minute bouts of meditation are probably not sufficient to substantially affect sleep debt, we also investigated typical sleep duration and other variables in long-term meditators who meditate 2-3 hours or more per day. This latter study may help address whether meditation (or even simple eyes-closed resting) can be used to pay-off some portion of sleep debt, either through the neuronal synchronization seen by EEG, or through some other mechanism.

Methods

In the first study on novice meditators, participants included 7 males and 3 females – paid volunteers 19 to 23 years old (5 Caucasian, 3 Asian and 2 Hispanic). Average age was 21.5 years. Subjects were recruited by campus advertisements at the University of Kentucky or word of mouth. All ten accepted subjects appeared in excellent health, and underwent general screening using a detailed questionnaire to eliminate those with medical or psychiatric illness or sleep disorders, and limited use of caffeine, alcohol, and other drugs. Two subjects were screened out and did not participate based on this information. Subjects were instructed to abstain from caffeine, nicotine, alcohol, and all other drugs on each study day. They were also instructed to keep a regular sleep-wake schedule, for a week prior to each testing day. The sleep-wake behavior was monitored in all subjects prior to each experimental day using an activity monitor watch (IM Systems, ACTITRAC) to ensure conformity. Average sleep time was 7.48 ± 0.40 hours/day on the nights prior to each experimental session (based on actigraphy data), which was also generally consistent throughout the experimental period. Subjects typically had late bed-times (around 1:00 am) and late wake-times (around 8:30 am), as is common in a young university community.

Subjects were tested under four treatments: Control (C), Nap (N), Meditation (M) and Sleep Deprivation plus Meditation (SD+M). For the first three treatment conditions, C, N and M, each subject was tested twice (a total of 6 different days), and once for the SD+M treatment. The testing was done on non-consecutive days, and the activity for each day was randomly assigned (without the subjects’ prior knowledge), with the one night of total SD completed over a weekend. Each subject refrained from caffeine and other stimulants or depressants throughout each experiment. Each subject was given 2 practice runs on the PVT, ahead of the experimental days. None of the subjects had prior experience with meditative techniques. Each subject was given instructions in simple eyes-closed concentrative meditation techniques (with focus on breathing) for 2 days in pairs (one hour per day), ahead of the experimental schedule. All training was done by the same individual who practices such meditation and had recently completed a twelve-week course in order to provide more uniform instruction. Subjects were taught in the kneeling position with the aid of a kneeling meditation bench (Samadhi Cushions, Barnet, Vermont, USA) that is especially helpful for beginners in optimizing spinal alignment and reducing weight and stress on the knees, hips, ankles, and back. The bench was covered with the optional cushion, along with a floor cushion, for further comfort. Subjects were taught uniform abdominal breathing, with focus on abdominal movements throughout the 40 minute meditation period. On control days, subjects sat in a standard desk chair, listened to soft music and engaged in either light reading or conversation to ensure a constant period of eyes open wakefulness. On nap days, the subjects were asked to lie down in bed and attempt to sleep for the entire 40 minutes. All conditions were completed in a quiet room of the subjects’ choosing.

PVT-192 (Ambulatory Monitoring Inc.) was used to test for vigilance and reaction time. Three 10 min tests were done at 3:00 pm, 4:00 pm and 4:50 pm respectively. The treatments(C, N, and M) took place between 3:10 pm and 3:50 pm. Between 4:10 pm and 4:50 pm, each subject was involved in control activities the same as the control condition above (sitting, with light music background, reading or conversation, eyes open).

In the second study with long-term meditators, 7 subjects (3 females and 4 males, from India) with at least 3 years of regular meditation practice (2 hrs or more per day for most days of the year) were used. Age range 24-48 years (all citizens of India in the Delhi region) and average age 38.1 years. All were healthy with no history of major medical, psychiatric or sleep problems. All practiced traditional yogic styles of meditation with focus on the breathing, and all would probably be classified as “concentrative” meditation as opposed to “mindfulness” meditation, although these distinctions are not always clear. Sleep journals were kept on a pre-supplied format for a minimum of 15 days (a maximum of 30 days). Activity monitors (ACTITRAC) were used for Actigraphy records for a minimum of 15 days to a maximum of 22 days. A marker button (read digitally) was pressed by the subjects every time they would commence to meditate. EEGs were done on a subset of subjects (n = 3) using a Neurocare Wingraph Digital EEG system (Biotech). A standard 10 lead placement system was used. MSLT and PVT tests were also conducted on a subset of subjects (n = 4) using standard methods. EEGs were scored by hand with the assistance of a trained and certified polysomnographic technician. Twenty-three control subjects in India were also selected for total sleep time comparisons relative to the seven meditators. These control subjects were sex and age matched.

All data were analyzed with analysis of variance (ANOVA) by using the General Linear Model (GLM) within SYSTAT 12 (SYSTAT Software, Inc., 1735, Technology Drive, Ste 430, San Jose, CA 95110, USA), or nonparametric alternatives when the assumptions of ANOVA were not met. We used the Kolmogorov-Smirnov, Shapiro-Wilk and Anderson-Darling tests for normality, and Levene’s test for homogeneity of variances.

The first experiment was analyzed as a repeated measures design. The response variable was change in PVT reaction time, post- minus pre-. Each of 10 subjects was tested in each of 4 experimental treatments (Control, Nap, Meditation, Sleep Deprivation plus Meditation) in a two-way mixed model without replication, where Treatment was a fixed effect and Subject, the blocking variable, was a random effect. We were interested primarily in the treatment effects. The 4 treatments were compared with each other with a series of post hoc contrasts, and the resulting probabilities were Bonferonni adjusted. These 4 treatments were explored further with a repeated measures analysis of covariance (ANCOVA), where post- was our response variable, and pre- was our covariate.

We intended to analyze this response variable with a repeated measures analysis of variance (ANOVA), which is a two-way, randomized-block design, without replication. The two factors in the ANOVA are Treatment (fixed effect) and Subject (random effect, the blocking variable). Although our response variable satisfied the assumption of normality, it did not satisfy the assumption of homogeneity of variances (Levene’s test statistic = 5.890, p < 0.005), and standard data transformations did not correct this problem. Variance heterogeneity presents problems for ANOVA. We rank-transformed the data, and found that the variances of the ranks among treatment groups were homogeneous (Levene’s test statistic = 1.769, p > 0.176) and these ranks also satisfied the assumption of normality. We analyzed these ranks with the nonparametric alternative to a randomized block ANOVA, Friedman’s Randomized Blocks. We found significant treatment effects on change in PVT reaction time (Friedman Test Statistic = 23.4, df = 3, p << 0.0005; Figure 1, Table 1). The M and SD+M treatments showed faster post-treatment reaction times, whereas the N and C treatments showed slower post-treatment reaction times (Figure 1, Table 1). We performed three post-hoc comparisons, the two treatments that had faster reaction times (M versus SD+M), the two treatments that had slower post-treatment reaction times (C versus N), and the treatments with meditation against those without meditation ([M plus SD+M] versus [C plus N]). Although these contrasts are orthogonal, they were unplanned. To preserve an experiment-wise error rate of 0.05, we applied the Bonferroni correction for these three contrasts, and compared their test statistics against p < 0.0167. These post hoc contrasts revealed that M and SD+M are one nonsignificant subset of the data (Friedman Test Statistic = 1.6, df = 1, p > 0.20), that C and N are another nonsignificant subset of the data (Friedman Test Statistic = 3.6, df = 1, p > 0.05), and that these two groups significantly differ from each other (Friedman Test Statistic = 20.0, df = 1, P < 0.0005). Note that doing a parametric ANOVA on the rank transformed data gives qualitatively the same results as the nonparametric Friedman’s Randomized Blocks (Overall ANOVA: F_3,27 = 25.799, p << 0.0001; M versus SD+M: F_1,27 = 0.893, p > 0.893; C versus N: F_1,27 = 3.338, p > 0.078; [M plus SD+M] versus [C plus N]: F_1,27 = 73.164, p << 0.0001).

Table 1. The data on which Figures 1 and 2 are based. For the Nap, Control, and Meditation Treatments, the data are the averages for the 2 days of measurement.

Figure 1. Mean change in PVT reaction time for our four experimental treatments: Control (C), Nap (N), Meditation (M), Sleep Deprivation Plus Meditation (SD+M). Performance improves following meditation (M, SD+M) and declines following a nap and in controls (N, C); Friedman Test Statistic = 23.4, df = 3, p << 0.0005. Treatments noted with the same letter (a or b) denote nonsignificant subsets of the overall analysis. Values represent the mean PVT reaction times before treatment minus the post-treatment. Error bars denote one standard error.

Unlike change in PVT reaction time, we found that pre- and post-treatment PVT reaction times do satisfy the assumptions of normality and homogeneity of variances. Therefore, we also performed a repeated measures analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) without replication, where post-treatment PVT reaction time was our response variable, our two factors were Treatment (fixed variable) and Subject (random blocking variable), and our covariate was pre-treatment reaction time. Although neither main factor was significant (Treatment: F_3,23 = 1.798, p = 0.176; Subject: F_9,23 = 0.535; P = 0.834), both the Covariate (Pre-: F_1,23 = 23.315. p <<0.0001) and the Treatment By Covariate interaction term were significant (Treatment × Pre: F_3,23 = 3.13, p < 0.05; the Subject by Covariate interaction term was not significant, F_9,14 = 0.318. p = 0.955, and dropped from the model). The very strong covariate effect indicates that post-treatment and pre-treatment reaction times are highly correlated among Subjects and Treatments; whereas, the Treatment by Covariate interaction term indicates heterogeneity among treatments in the slopes of these relationships. A post hoc examination of these trends revealed that the two treatments that include meditation, M and SD+M, have shorter Post-Treatment PVT Reaction Times (F_1,27 = 7.152, p < 0.02) and a shallower regression slope (F_1,27 = 12.610, p < 0.002) than the two treatments that do not include meditation, C and N (Figure 2). Separate Analysis of Covariance for C versus N treatments, and for the M versus SD+M treatments indicates no significant effects of Treatment, Subject, Treatment by Covariate interaction, or Treatment by Subject interaction for either grouping.

Figure 2. A plot of Post-Treatment PVT Reaction Time versus Pre-Treatment PVT Reaction Time for our four treatments. The treatments that included meditation, M and SD+M, showed faster post- than pre-treatment reaction times; whereas, the reverse was true for the C and N treatments. The M and SD+M treatments have a shallower regression slope than the two treatments that do not include meditation, C and N (F_1,27 = 12.610, p < 0.002).

In our second experiment, our response variable was average sleep duration, which was analyzed with a one-way ANOVA with two treatments: Meditators versus Non-meditators.

All research protocols were reviewed and approved by the University of Kentucky’s – Institutional Review Board. All protocols and ethical directives were strictly adhered to including informed consent from all study participants.

Results

In the first study, we asked whether meditation might impact PVT performance, relative to pre-test conditions and our other treatment groups. In this initial group, we trained 10 students in simple breathing-focused meditation, and asked them to meditate for 40 minutes. PVT performance was assessed just prior to the meditation period, 10 minutes following meditation, and again one hour later. Each subject was tested on two different days with meditation treatment (M), two days with a 40 minute nap (N), and two days with 40 minutes of relaxed eyes-open activity (C). The six days of testing on each subject were spaced over multiple weeks, and each day’s activity randomly assigned, unknown to the subject in advance. Later, we examined whether meditation improves PVT performance after 32 hours of sleep deprivation for the same set of subjects, which was done once for each subject.

Our response variable was change in PVT reaction time (pre-treatment – post-treatment). Because we found no effect of Day in our C, N and M treatments (Day: F_1,47 = 0.691, p = 0.410), we averaged the two treatment days for our pre- and post-treatment reaction times for the C, N and M treatments, and used the single day of data following sleep deprivation (four treatments in total).

In all 10 subjects, performance on the PVT improved (faster reaction times) following meditation (F_1,9 = 102.454, p << 0.00001, Figures 1 and 2, Table 1). See the methods section for a more detailed statistical analysis. The direction and amplitude of this trend was congruent for 9 out of the 10 subjects on each of the two days. One hour later, many subjects return to baseline performance with no significant differences relative to control days (data not shown).

In contrast to meditation, the reaction times slowed for 9 out of 10 subjects following a nap (F_1,9 = 26.375, p < 0.001, Figures 1 and 2, Table 1). This trend was congruent on both nap days for 9 out of 10 subjects. The slower times following a nap were probably due to sleep inertia as shown previously[18]. One hour later, reaction times improved, but were still below baseline (data not shown), again consistent with some other studies on the dissipation of sleep inertia[19]. Surprisingly, even the control activities showed a clear slowing on the PVT (F_1,9 = 28.295, p =< 0.0005; Figure 1), perhaps due to a mild circadian decline in performance during the late afternoon (the “mid-afternoon dip”). As is common in college students, our subjects had relatively late bed-times (median of 1:00 am) and wake-times (median 8:30 am) and thus our 4:00 pm post-treatment time may have coincided with their nadir in performance. In light of the results following naps and control activities, the improvement post-meditation appears even greater, since the improvement occurs against the normal decline.

To determine if this post-meditative effect could improve performance under conditions of a large sleep debt, we next challenged each subject with a full night of sleep deprivation. As expected, after approximately 32 hours with no sleep, the subjects had slower baseline PVT measurements (289 ms versus 255 ms; F_1,56 = 21.959, p << 0.0001), and against this lower baseline, the enhancement with meditation was again significant (F_1,9 = 15.210, p < 0.005, Figures 1 and 2, Table 1). In contrast to the initial testing when subjects were well rested, we observed a number of lapses being committed by subjects in this experiment, which were extremely rare in the other treatments. A lapse was defined as an RT of >500 ms or an erroneous response. The number of lapses post-meditation declined both for individuals and as a group (F_1,7 = 4.85, p < 0.05, 1-tailed test), further supporting a global improvement in cognitive and psychomotor alerting responses following meditation.

This experiment suggests that meditation serves a performance-enhancing and perhaps restorative role even in novice meditators. To address this possible restorative role over longer durations, we conducted an initial study on seven long-term “expert” meditators in India, who typically spent 2-3 hrs/day in meditation, versus 23 age- and sex-matched non-meditators as controls. These subjects had sufficient amounts of daily meditation time such that it might produce a noticeable decrease in total sleep time if meditation can actually replace a portion of sleep, or compensate in some other way. As a first step to address this question, we used actigraphy[20], EEG, and sleep journals to assess sleep, wake, and meditation times, and found a generally shorter sleep time in these subjects (Table 2, Figure 3) relative to our control subjects (5.2 versus 7.8 hours per day; F_1,28 = 54.183, p <<0.00001), and also compared to published norms[21]. In addition, there was no evidence of sleepiness on the PVT when it was run multiple times in a subset of these subjects compared to subjects with more typical sleep times (7-8 hours/night) (data not shown). A subset of meditators also underwent Multiple Sleep Latency Tests, to look for day-time sleepiness, and did not display any evidence of sleep debt (mean sleep latency being 18.25 minutes, above population norms). Some subjects were also monitored by EEG, video, and/or direct observation during bouts of meditation to confirm that very little (if any) sleep occurred during the meditation bouts. EEG showed very little sleep of any stage, and video and direct observations showed no signs of head droop or other postural changes indicative of sleep.

Table 2. Daily sleep and meditation amounts in meditators vs. controls

Figure 3. Average sleep duration for long-term meditators versus non-meditators in India. Meditators had significantly shorter sleep durations than non-meditators (5.2 versus 7.8 hours per day; F_1,28 = 54.183, p <<0.00001). Error bars denote one standard error.

Discussion

A wide variety of claims for different types of meditation have been made over many centuries. Among these claims are improvement in many types of performance and alterations in sleep and EEG patterns that have received considerable, but sometimes mixed, scientific support over the past few decades [3,9,22-25]. Our results demonstrate that a forty minute bout of meditation produces a short-term improvement in PVT performance in novice meditators. Previous studies on meditation and reaction time have focused largely on Transcendental Meditation (TM) that typically involve 20 minute bouts of meditation focused on a Mantra that is claimed to be specifically suited to each practitioner. In some studies, practitioners of TM have faster baseline reaction times, consistent with studies showing improved reaction times in novice subjects undergoing TM training over many days [26,27]. These subjects did not show immediate pre-test to post-test improvement as we demonstrate here. Similarly, in studies of Buddhist mindfulness meditation, reaction times improved over many weeks of practice, but since testing was done shortly after meditation periods [5], it is also possible these subjects benefited from the short-term improvements we find in our present study. It appears that some changes associated with meditation occur with very little training, while others may take many years of practice. For example, with EEG patterns, increases in alpha and theta power in the EEG spectrum occur rapidly with almost any eyes-closed relaxation [1,3], while changes in gamma wave coherence are most remarkable in very experienced Tibetan Buddhist meditators during meditation bouts [23]. Interestingly, these latter changes in gamma activity persist to a lesser degree during non-meditation periods suggesting long-term changes in brain activity in these experienced meditators [23]. This kind of more intense meditation training also appears critical to improvements in attentional tasks [28].

In contrast, the improvement we see in novice meditators may be related to the increase in alpha (8-12 Hz) or theta (5-7 Hz) waves and the increased feelings of relaxation that may decrease distraction on the subsequent PVT, and thus improve performance. In addition, the increase in neuronal synchronization may directly improve the performance of neuronal systems needed for the PVT, perhaps by some kind of “re-setting” to baseline conditions. The role of neuronal synchronization in the cortex reflected by increased amplitude in the EEG for any frequency band is unclear, but certainly the very strong correlation between time spent awake and the subsequent EEG delta power (0.5-4 Hz) during non-REM sleep [29] suggest the possibility that synchronization at delta frequencies during non-REM sleep play some kind of role in neuronal restoration or augmentation. If so, it seems plausible that increased alpha or theta power might be restorative in some manner as well, perhaps in ways similar to non-REM sleep. It has been suggested that subjective reports of restfulness following meditation may reflect that meditation is a sleep-like state, or that substantial sleep occurs during bouts of meditation [30], but this is not supported by the overwhelming majority of EEG studies (see reference 3 for review), nor did we see any evidence of sleep in our subjects during meditation periods.

Based on previous reports of sleep inertia (reviewed in reference [15]), we expected to see a decline in PVT performance following a nap, but were somewhat surprised by the magnitude of this decline (Figure 1). This substantial decline may be due to the duration of our naps that probably allowed at least some subjects to reach deep slow-wave sleep (previously called stage 3 and 4, and now simply N3) that has been associated with increased sleep inertia following arousal [18]. Most of our subjects appeared to fall asleep within ten minutes and thus had 30 minutes of sustained sleep time. The decline in performance following control activities is less clear, but may be due to multiple factors including a continuing decline in alertness at this time of day (3:00-4:00 pm) that represented roughly the mid-point of their 16-17 hour wake period. In addition, although we excluded subjects with high caffeine usage, our subjects were “typical” adults with caffeine intake estimated on the order of 100-200 mg/day. Since we allowed no coffee, tea, soda, or other high caffeine source throughout the afternoon period on each experimental day, it is also possible our subjects were experiencing mild caffeine withdraw or simply missing their usual afternoon caffeine boost that was more severe at 4:00 than 3:00. It is also possible their motivation lapsed slightly during this period for other reasons. In any case, the decline in performance under control conditions suggests that the improved performance following meditation may be closer to 14% (relative to their no meditation control days) than the roughly 7% improvement relative to pre-test conditions (Figure 1, Table 1). In addition, this clearly distinguishes the meditative state from the sleep state, despite the fact that both meditation and sleep (at least for stages 3 and 4) display increased cortical neuronal synchronization [3,7] as seen on EEGs.

Although the frequencies and generation of neuronal synchronization are different in meditation and sleep, the increase during meditation coupled with claims that meditation is restorative, led us to investigate the related question of whether this practice might be able to replace a portion of sleep. While the results presented here are preliminary, they support the possibility of some restoration. All seven Yogis that we studied have sleep times below both the control population we assessed and with published norms from multiple different ethnic groups [21], and all had substantial periods of meditation each day approximately equal to the “lost” sleep. Anecdotal claims that some Yogis do not sleep at all or only two hours/night are probably exaggerated, as are many sleep claims, but a one to one pay-off of sleep debt through meditation appears possible for a portion of sleep. When we challenged Yogis with a total night of sleep deprivation, they were generally too tired to meditate successfully, further discounting the idea that extensive meditation could totally or largely replace sleep. An alternative explanation of our results could be that meditators have deeper or more intense sleep, and thus may be able to achieve the restorative benefits of sleep in less time.

Limitations

A number of limitations may be relevant to these studies. First, the subjects in the primary study assessing PVT changes were all college age students and novice meditators. Therefore, these results may not extend to other populations that differ in age, meditation experience or skill, type of meditation, education, or many other variables. However, a pilot study on a couple of our experienced meditators and a couple age-matched controls from the second study (age: late thirties to early forties) suggested similar results (data not shown), and the two experienced meditators appeared to maintain their performance improvement into the second hour (not shown again, due to extremely small sample sizes). Even our larger sample size in the primary experiment (n = 10) is admittedly quite small. Nonetheless, power analyses supported this sample size as sufficient using a within subject design, and with the magnitude of improvements we suspected based on the first few subjects. Naturally, a larger sample size would likely have found additional differences between treatment groups or for additional variables. For example, meditation, even in the novice group, appeared to help maintain PVT performance across the entire 10 minute test periods (in the first post-test but not the one in the second hour), whereas performance declined following nap or control periods within these single 10 minute tests. However, we lacked sufficient power to properly test this effect, and it was therefore not included in the results.

Another limitation is the possibility that subjects expected to do better following meditation, either from their own beliefs, or conveyed unconsciously by the investigators. This is a difficult problem in studies of meditation and many other treatments, since double-blind studies are not possible (subjects know which “treatment” they are getting). While we cannot eliminate this possibility in the present study, we think it is unlikely for two reasons. First, several subjects told us they thought that both meditation and the nap would improve their performance, since they were unaware of sleep inertia effects. Clearly their “expectation” following the naps did not improve their performance substantially (since they consistently did worse than their pre-test). Second, the PVT is a very basic test of reaction time and vigilance that has no learning curve and would be difficult to consciously or unconsciously under-perform in order to later out-perform one’s results following meditation. Further, our subjects were young and highly motivated, and we encouraged them to perform their best on all tests. In summary, we believe we would have seen evidence if our results were primarily due to the subjects’ or the investigators’ expectancies. These issues will continue to be important as we try to expand our studies from PVT performance to cognitive performance or other functions. In the latter study on Yogis and controls in India, it is possible that Yogis wished to exaggerate the benefits of yoga and the reduction in sleep it allowed, but it seems unlikely to us that they would have maintained such limited sleep for the full duration of these studies. In addition, it is for this reason we insisted on at least 15 days of actigraphy data on each Yogi and not simple sleep journals that are much more easily biased.

It may be of interest to note that our seven Yogis all slept between four and six hours a day. Perhaps, there is a basic core amount of sleep that is critical to all mammals (and perhaps all or most non-mammals too) and cannot be replaced by anything but sleep. Sleep time in mammals varies from about four to nineteen hours [31,32], potentially supporting a view that some portion of sleep in longer sleeping mammals is adaptive and not critical for basic brain functions. Some researchers have suggested that humans have a core need of four to six hours of sleep per day [33]. However, considerable data have shown that chronic restriction to this amount of sleep in most humans results in poor performance and the accumulation of substantial sleep debt [16]. While there is still some debate regarding these issues [34,35], there is general consensus that the majority of adults need about 7 hours or more per night for optimal or near-optimal function without accumulating a sleep debt. Yet, our limited data to date suggest that the Yogis in this study are near or exceed the optimal range on PVT and MSLT with less than 7 hours of sleep, and may be replacing one to three hours of sleep with meditation (despite no signs of sleep during these meditation bouts). Planned EEG studies in meditators may provide supporting data if we find that high alpha or other synchronous firing during meditation reduces the EEG delta power during subsequent sleep (or in the alternative explanation above, might increase EEG delta power as the Yogis sleep more intensely). It is also possible that meditation might be able to do whatever it is that sleep does, by a different but overlapping process. In either case, if meditation is restorative in a manner similar to sleep, it might benefit individuals with excessive daytime sleepiness due to sleep disorders or to lifestyle factors. Not only might these meditation bouts reduce accumulating sleep debt, but individuals may also benefit from the short-term performance improvements noted above, without the problems of sleep inertia that occur with longer naps. Lastly, so-called “power naps” of 10-15 minutes duration often involve no actual sleep, and may therefore provide a period of predominant alpha waves more similar to meditation than sleep.

Conclusions

Meditation appears to provide at least a short term improvement in reaction time performance, and may also provide a longer term reduction in sleep need roughly equal to the time spent in meditation.

Competing interests

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Authors’ contributions

PK carried out all experiments with assistance from JP. PK also contributed to all other aspects of the project including the design and implementation of all studies, data analyses, manuscript preparation, etc. RS performed all statistical analyses and contributed to the design of experiments, interpretation of data, and writing the manuscript. BO conceived of the project and design of the studies, provided funding, interpreted data, and directed all other efforts. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Acknowledgements

We thank Drs. Fred Danner, Barbara Phillips and Robin Cooper for helpful comments and ideas related to this work, and Dr. Phillips for help with analysis of EEG recordings. This work was supported by internal funding from the University of Kentucky.

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To Read the original Behavioral and Brain Functions Study Results click HERE