(Zheng, Yao, & Narayanan, 2020)
While many research teams are dedicating themselves to discovering a vaccine for the COVID-19 virus, mindfulness researchers are now studying how mindfulness practices could be effective for reducing the daily anxiety associated with the pandemic. Scientific research traditionally moves slowly, yet a team of researchers based in the perceived epicenter of the virus, Wuhan, China, recently tested whether a brief mindfulness intervention delivered through an app could be effective for reducing anxiety and protecting nightly sleep during the unfolding pandemic.
New COVID-19 outbreaks within communities cause sudden and unprecedented physical, emotional, occupational, and social changes. Individuals naturally experiencing anxiety may also encounter disruption to their sleep health. The reciprocating effects of anxiety on sleep health lead to further health complications that may leave immune systems compromised and populations further susceptible to infection.
This study recruited 97 adult volunteers from Wuhan, China for a randomized controlled trial conducted in a 10 day period between February 20th and March 2nd, 2020. Participants were randomized into either a mindfulness intervention or a mind-wandering intervention control group.
At the beginning of the study, all participants completed a baseline survey to collect demographic information and baseline mindfulness levels. Every morning, both groups were sent a survey through a messaging app assessing for sleep duration, sleep quality, and caffeine intake, followed by a ten minute audio instruction for practice.
The mindfulness practice included instructions for mindful awareness, present focus, and acceptance. The mind-wandering audio contained instructions for unfocused attention, a wakeful state that is commonly used as a controlled condition in mindfulness research. Each night, participants completed another survey to assess for daily anxiety levels.
“Mindfulness interventions delivered through a smartphone app offers a viable public health solution to counteract the detrimental and synergistic effects of anxiety and sleep disruptions during this emerging pandemic.”
Study results revealed that compared to the mind-wandering condition, participants in the mindfulness group reported higher levels of mindfulness. Next, analyses indicated that daily anxiety levels were lower in the mindfulness group, even after controlling for a cluster of factors such as trait anxiety levels, age, and gender.
Furthermore, a difference emerged between the two groups with regards to the relationship between sleep duration and reports of new confirmed cases, a factor hypothesized to cause anxiety and disrupt sleep. Those within the mind-wandering condition loss more sleep by an average of 39 minutes per thousand daily confirmed cases. Importantly, sleep quantity was unaffected by those within the mindfulness condition.
While a notable advantage of this study is the unprecedented timing and access to a vulnerable community, this study has substantial limitations. Future studies will have the opportunity to implement more rigorous methodology, include a more comprehensive battery of assessments for different health indices, and include follow-up data to assess whether these changes are enduring.
The findings from this study offer insights into both the potential power of mindfulness practice and the multifaceted utility of science during a time of global crisis. Mindfulness interventions delivered through a smartphone app offers a viable public health solution to counteract the detrimental and synergistic effects of anxiety and sleep disruptions during this emerging pandemic. With concerns of over-utilization of hospital services, brief app-delivered mindfulness practices could add an additional level of health protection for citizens and their respected communities.
Michael is the Founder & Chief Editor of the Science of Mindfulness.
This study investigates the impact of humane education on fostering empathy and compassion towards animals within the Indian adolescent population. It addresses the escalating concerns
“Fostering self-compassion and building strong support systems empowers educators and counselors to guide students through mental distress, enhancing their well-being and resilience.” This study investigated
“Even if they felt excluded, those who had greater levels of self-compassion exhibited less depression because they tended to use positive coping mechanisms. “
The study also highlighted how emotional well-being and self-compassion act as mediators, bridging the gap between mental toughness and aggression to strengthen the protective impact of mental toughness against aggression.
The research highlights the importance to encourage self-compassion and forgiveness to improve older people’s mental health
Recent studies investigating the relationship between loneliness and poor sleep quality in teenagers discovered a significant correlation between higher loneliness and poorer sleep quality.
By providing an immersive, engrossing, and controlled visual and auditory experience in which participants can practice mindfulness techniques, Virtual Reality (VR) systems can create immersive, ecologically valid, first-person experiences that can even tap into physiological reactions that align with real-world experiences.
The researchers were interested in understanding if forgiveness acts as a mechanism by which mindfulness relates to relationship satisfaction. They speculated that being mindful would allow individuals to be aware of their own and their partners’ emotions in a non-judgmental and non-reactive way. The increased awareness would make people more forgiving of partner transgressions, thereby enhancing relationship satisfaction.
Emerging studies are highlighting the effectiveness of mindfulness, gratitude and hopefulness as positive psychological tools in helping people cope with anxiety and stress. These practices have also been considered beneficial in enhancing psychological health and well-being.
Despite growing knowledge that mindfulness meditation can enhance emotional wellbeing, very little is known about how it all works. How exactly does the act of meditation help us deal with the emotional rollercoaster of everyday life? Is mindfulness training actually “transferrable” to real world situations? What’s going on in the brain? Can we even measure it?
How does self-compassion protect depressed adolescents? Quieting the self may be the key.
A study led by Alexandra Martelli investigated whether more mindful individuals (based on self-report measure scores) would respond to social rejection with less distress and if certain neurological mechanisms in the brain’s prefrontal cortex can potentially explain the role of mindfulness in reduced social distress.
A research team from Valencia, Spain recently investigated the effects of a brief mindfulness-based intervention on both mood and biological markers on a sample of health professional students.
A new study by Kim and colleagues explored how compassion-based training can affect two self-regulatory styles and its relationship to neural, physiological, and behavioral responses.
Torre and colleagues recruited 70 HCWs from two hospitals in Rome, Italy for a 4-week course in yoga and mindfulness.
Mindfulness practices can enhance a therapist’s ability to intentionally and flexibly regulate attention as well as emotional reactivity which has been demonstrated to influence burnout.
A new study investigated whether a brief mindfulness training designed to reduce physician burnout could be delivered through a smartphone app.
The current study reviewed the wider scientific literature for the role of yoga and mindfulness interventions in the treatment of severe mental illness.
The amount of research involving mindfulness interventions has grown exponentially; however, only in the last decade has mindfulness research involving adolescents rapidly increased.
Mindfulness and self-compassion are theorized to disrupt the maladaptive repetition of negative thoughts and emotions for patients with chronic or mental illnesses, who are particularly susceptible to psychosocial distress.
There is promising evidence that 70% of smokers would like to quit but less than 5% of unassisted attempts at quitting are actually successful.
In a recent pilot study by Suzette Glasner, Ph.D. and her team at the Integrated Substance Abuse Programs at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, they evaluated the effects of Mindfulness-Based Relapse Prevention (MBRP) on reducing relapse susceptibility among stimulant-dependent adults receiving a contingency management (CM) intervention.
A major implication of the study suggests the distal effects of intensive retreat practice on respiration rates, a benefit not necessarily conferred by a brief, but full-day meditation session.
Researchers are exploring mindfulness-based interventions as a long-term treatment options to address the multitude of symptoms after cancer has been treated.
While the scientific study of mindfulness has exponentially increased over the past few decades, only recently has the scientific community focused on the effects of meditation training on biological aging.
Tell us about your idea. Nearly any subject related to the science of mindfulness is fair game.