Meditating for 2 minutes can alter your brain: Study
What's the story
Meditation, a practice that has gained immense popularity in recent years, is not just about relaxation. A new study has shown that even a short session of meditation can lead to significant changes in our brains. The research found that these changes start within just two minutes and peak around the seven-minute mark. This suggests that even if you struggle with meditation at first, sticking with it for a few minutes could lead to meaningful transformations in your brain.
Brain activity
Brain activity changes detected within minutes
The study, co-led by Dr. Balachundhar Subramaniam, a professor of anesthesiology at Harvard Medical School, found that alpha brain waves, which are associated with calm wakefulness, increase during meditation. These changes in brain activity were detected using an electroencephalogram (EEG) test that measures electrical patterns in the brain through sensors placed on the scalp. The researchers observed significant changes in brain waves within just a couple of minutes of meditation practice among participants with varying levels of experience.
Wave changes
Specific brain waves affected by meditation
The EEG test revealed that meditation led to an increase in brain waves associated with relaxation and focus, such as theta, theta-alpha, alpha, and beta-1. Meanwhile, delta and gamma-1 brain waves decreased, indicating less drowsiness and mind-wandering. Interestingly enough, the study found no change in beta-2 brain wave activity during meditation sessions.
Reallocation
Why meditation alters brain activity
Dr. Ignacio Saez, Director of the Laboratory for Human Neurophysiology at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York, said meditation changes brain waves because it alters what the brain is doing. He explained that when someone transitions from ordinary mind-wandering to a deliberate practice like breath awareness, the brain reallocates resources toward attention, self-monitoring, emotion regulation, and memory-related processes. These shifts leave an electrical signature in form of changes in brain activity patterns during meditation sessions.