When a busy day is done, and you’re finally tucked in bed and fast asleep, your brain gets a break from that seemingly endless daily barrage of stimulation.
For researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, that made for an ideal opportunity to take a look at brain waves in their most natural, uninfluenced state.
They wanted to find out if long-term meditation could increase gamma power.
Basically, gamma is a pattern of brain waves that’s usually associated with perception and consciousness – as well as some plasticity-related processes like attention, learning, and memory.
Under the guidance of psychiatrist and neuroscientist Giulio Tononi, MD, PhD, Fabio Ferrarelli and colleagues worked overnight using high-density electroencephalography (hdEEG) to compare the brains of long-term meditators (LTM) with those of folks who had never meditated.
They recruited 29 right-handed LTM participants and the same number of non-meditators, matching for age and sex – all between their late 30s and early 60s.
The meditation group was made up of folks who had been practicing for at least 3 years, and had also participated in at least 3 one-week intensive retreats.
Each participant was recorded all night using high-density EEG, and for an added control, the sleep technician was blind to group assignment.
After a lot of long nights, and thanks to a few pieces of hi-tech equipment, the researchers had some exciting data to show.
Compared to the non-meditators, the LTM group had significantly increased gamma brain waves.
What’s cool is that these waves have also been linked with increased compassion, happiness, and optimal brain function, and are often used as a measure of lasting brain change.
While we can’t draw too many conclusions from the experiment because it wasn’t randomized, these findings add to the growing body of evidence that meditation can change the brain.
You can find the details of this study in the August 2013 issue of PLOS ONE (volume 8, issue 8).
Our webinar series on Practical Brain Science is chock-full of strategies you can use to change the brain. Click here to sign up.
And now, I’d like to hear from you. Are you using meditation to improve the way your brain works? Have you suggested it to a client to help them enhance cognitive function, or create brain change? Please leave a comment below.
Hi I’ve been meditating for six plus hours a day for some years now . It seams to me now my brain goes into a deep meditation At night time so much so I need to meditate lightly in the morning to rest my mind. It’s like I wake up and I’ve been exercising my brain without me knowing it . I find myself excited about my future and positive about myself which is great news as the doctors was a waste of time to me .
I believe in meditation. Started a program slightly before covid broke out, to continue a path I began in my tender youth. I’m so glad of this.
thanks for sharing this blog
Thanks a lot for sharing this wonderful post. I really appreciate your kind efforts. I’ve recently started to learn about meditation about 6-7 months back. It’s truly an inspiration for Beginners like me.
Thanks for sharing.
Jenny
As a recovered scientist with a long standing interest in yoga. I have been on a personal journey that seriously messed up my sleep patterns. My feeling is that the problem probably related to a number of factors that include healing & brain rewiring. While I have been on this journey at some point on sleepless nights I started listening to guided meditations & I have had some crazy physical reactions & consequently beautiful rest full sleep. Our bodies are so much more amazing and beautiful than we give them credit for
Kathryn, I have noticed that for people with traumatised backgrounds meditation/mindfulness is very difficult and much one-on-one therapeutic input is needed to reteach the body that it is safe enough to meditate/be mindful. To a traumatised body system, meditation is dangerous because it reduces movement, thinking and hypervigilance of the outside (seemingly dangerous) world. Attention, body awareness and timing are also altered for a traumatised individual and therapy is also needed to rebuild this and again all these are needed for meditation practice (and meditation/mindfulness practice is used to do this change). Hence, for some it comes easy, others not and that is part of our assessment of the individual.
Maria
Maria – what you wrote about is very important for people to understand. There are many people in the world today living with a trauma of one sort or the other. Often with traumatized people I find it helpful if they meditate with eyes open or we do a “walking meditation” to build confidence and trust. Have you done any research/study on the use of meditation with traumatized individuals? I would love to hear any results you’ve found. Please contact me if you are interested in sharing.
Hi Ruth, I truly feel that my regular daily practise of meditation has helped me to be able to regulate my emotions better as well as allowing me to think cleared in times of stress and to be open and aware in the present moment instead of perseverating on past or future events. I also think that it has helped my physiologically with healing minor aches and pains.
It has also helped me professionally to help my clients gain a better sense of their ability to control their own emotions and reactivity.
I’m a long-time mindfulness meditator and introduce it in snippets during sessions with clients, such as beginning a session with sitting for deepening. I’ve taught some mindfulness classes and it seems to work well in groups, but I find it challenging to interest many individual clients in spending part of their session time in meditation. Since it takes some experience for folks to realize tangible benefit from sitting, they balk at that use of their expensive time with me. How do some of you work with that?
Thanks, Ruth, for opening this dialogue –
Kathryn
During my trauma therapy my therapist (a clinical psychologist) suggested I get a book and try mindfulness at home. This was because I had started to notice subtle changes in my thought patterns and body sensations. As time went on, she incorporated the mindfulness skills I was developing at home into the sessions. This spurred me on to continue my practice at home, but wasn’t using meditation in the session in terms of formal practice. It was more about ‘focusing my awareness’ and not letting sensations grow, cultivating acceptance etc. All of the things I needed to learn to put mindfulness into my daily life and healing process. Mindfulness is far more than the formal sitting. In my opinion. I think it’s a very individual process.
I meditate mainly as simply a daily practice without an agenda but I do feel the benefits of long-term meditation by an increase in focused attention, better emotion regulation, deepening of compassion and love, and increase in neuroplasicity of brain. I have also highly recommended meditation to clients, colleagues, family and friends.
Veronica.
I am completing a post-doctoral fellowship at a mental health center in the midwest. I am the program psychologist for a program to provide therapeutic inpatient services for individuals with borderline personality disorder. The program is designed around DBT which encompasses mindfulness. My doctoral program was inclusive of a mindfulness meditation course and practicum, so I feel really fortunate to be trained in this area. I am a mindfulness meditation practitioner and I utilize meditation in the Women’s and Men’s healthy relationship groups that I facilitate. I also use it with the individual clients I serve. The program strongly supports my work. I am stating to see individuals starting to make effective and appropriate decisions about their intra and interpersonal relationships. I even have some staff members who sit in on my groups to also use mindfulness meditation. I know it works, because it works on me. I am more purposeful and engage in my work. My interactions with everyone has more depth and compassion. I am so grateful for my early exposure to mindfulness. I know that I am a different kind of psychologist by being a practitioner. Hope this helps.
I think this is great news! I’m so excited you’re stepping out of the box and using mindfulness! Can you suggest any materials you used initially to learn the technique?
I have designed and I am leading an in-patient chair based yoga class at a UPMC on our rehabilitation units (providing classes for brain, spinal cord, and general rehab patients and their families). The class relies on pranayama (breath work), meditation (a number of techniques), and visualization with minimal asana (postures). The response has been wonderful and making a difference in participants’ lives. Our research thus far is qualitative, but we are validating the use of mobile EEG currently in healthy subjects hopefully to be used in the future for quantitative outcomes research.
I have been practicing meditation and mindfulness based living for more than 8 years (I’m a toddler by comparison to some of my wonderful friends and colleagues!). Since that time, I introduce mindfulness based practices and meditation to clients as often as it is appropriate. I’ve also completed the Mindfulness and Psychotherapy course you offered and greatly appreciated it. Thank you. – San
Hello Ruth,
I have been meditating for ten years now and yes I have become more aware of myself. It has helped calm down my nervous systems and manage my life better. It has also helped me with my spiritual life. Creating a daily spiritual practice involves, a Type of 3 D workout (coined by Terry Patten), that involves awareness of the gross physical body, the subtle body and the causal body. Followed by a short period od dance movements that allow me to feel joy and to be grateful to have a human body, and then a period of sitting meditation.
I have a client who I think would greatly benefit from meditation but am not sure how to introduce or go about teaching a method that would work for her particular situation. She was diagnosed has having Bipolar. I would like to help her, help herself use meditation as a resource in dealing with her symptoms of anxiety and depression that she gets.
I have been meditating for over 35 years and have been teaching meditation to all my clients for several years with positive results
thanks!
Thanks so much for this. I have worked mental health/addictions in several settings over the last 30+ years and can say that the meditative arts are just the best. Whether someone settles in for hour long, half hour, or shorter periods, they ALWAYS show improvement in cognition and affect. Getting there in Trauma Informed Treatment can take a bit, but after the initial apprehension has worn off great gains have been made. I am a daily meditation person for the last nearly 12 years. Will not do without it !
I practised Hatha Yoga intently for three years 50 years ago and began meditation then. I spent around 12 years in meditative practice living in a situation where we had daily meditation several times a day beginning at 4am. From there I began to trial short meditation practice of about 10-15 minutes as I found that I was unhappy with my ability to focus for longer periods of up to an hour. I have continued doing this including today and I find that I can meditate or call to mind higher thoughts and feelings easily anywhere and at most times even in meetings. I have at times reached a different state of mind where I seem to transcend my experience and move into an awareness of a unified cosmos. I have read you book on “God…” and your research seems to suggest that you can build a meditative practice using shorter time spans including prayer. I enjoyed reading that material.
I am a Licensed psychotherapist and I have been meditating regularly for about a year. I also start each session with most clients with a short practice. I strongly encourage my clients to practice on their own as well as give many suggestions on how to practice mindfulness throughout their day. In working with my clients I found that I could demonstrate true honesty and integrity as long as I’m walking the walk myself. I have seen tremendous personal benefit to both formal and informal practice. I am eager to continue learning how to implement skills in my private practice and use various resources as well as attending numerous seminars. I look forward to hearing about this report!
Thank you,
Warmly, Kerrie Aiello
I have been meditating for years ,simply as part of my spiritual practice. This practice works with all of me so that my awareness of myself, Self. my purpose, the meaning of life deepens allows me to connect to the love within and without. These moments in quiet, provide me with the clsrity,gratitude,
the inspiration and the sense of being guided and feeling filled with whatever I need to give out that day.I am a retired secondary teacher, now a practioner of EFT, SRI and Expressive dance.
LC Dundas ,Ontario, Canada
I started meditating 3.5 years ago following a brain tumour/surgery/radiotherapy, but in a very slapdash way. I am now doing a much more rigorous practice, and have felt a clear difference. It is of noticeable physical, psychological and emotional help to me in countering and reversing what I feel are the undesired cognitive effects of the brain onslaught. LOVE IT (meditation, not brain onslaughts, although I wouldn’t have discovered the one without the other) and what it’s doing for my cognition and for me. Indeed, I also appreciate now the wisdom of perceiving the apparatus, the processes and the function as a whole, not as discrete parts. I also appreciate that it is meditation that has enabled me to see this so clearly. The more I do it, the more I’m aware of what it does. Thanks, Ruth, for championing it and for being open to it.
Please send report.
Hi Ruth I have been meditating about 15 years and can verify the findings re Gamma because I have experimented using a neuro Sky mobile headset, and also measured coherence, stress, heart rate and heart rate variance. It is fascinating how today’s technology can confirm the value of the things we have done for so long without really appreciating how much it improves our lives. I also measure the efecs. Resting techniques and find it interesting to see the differing results.
Hi Ruth~
I started meditating and learning mindfulness a little over 4 years ago now. I got off of 16 years of psych meds and remain med free. What I want to share is that I now experience sleep with a new type of awakening. Maybe everyone does, but I sure did not before. I wake up with solutions to my issues of daily life. Its like magic for me. I am grounded and centered. Its the best being state ever. I’ve also had some very interesting dreams and continue to record and work with each one for the most part. Life is good with mindfulness!!!
I take ‘brain breaks’ with the 8 year old kids in my class because there are so many more children with self-regulation issues today. There is always one child who says, “my brain said thank you”! They are becoming more aware of how their behaviour affects others and ultimately themselves. Very positive.
I am amazed how science has been able to “prove” that meditation works in very scientific ways, like this study. I am even more amazed that meditation has been practiced hundreds of years throughout history prior to it being proven scientifically.
I am getting more and more into the practice, and I am hoping that I will become more confident in guiding my clients through the practice as well.
Thank yo for sharing this information. I have been meditating for several years as part of a mindfulness practice.
If I don’t leave time for it each day, it’s not long before I notice the difference in my attitude and harmony with life.
This does not surprise me! It is good to see some research, albeit not statistically randomised, that confirms my own experience and beliefs about meditation and the general state of the being when awake and asleep. I refer to sleep as ‘other wakefulness’. Thank you for sharing this study with us.
I’m just a novice but I have begun to raise my awareness. It is indeed exciting stuff!
It is life-preservong!
I use mediation to improve the way I work & suggest it widely, even in a simple form.
Exciting stuff!
Until we reached age of 4 during the normal state of eyes open, awake and alert our brains were functioning in the delta state, with brain waves function at less than 4 Hz. But still when we have deep sleep our brains function in the delta state..
From age of 4 to 7, during the normal state of eyes open, awake and alert our brains were primarily operating in theta state, with brain waves functioning mainly between between 4 to 7 Hz. Now we experience this level of brain wave activity during sleep and during states of fear when the body goes into a fight,-flight or freeze response, (hyper arousal, or the acute stress response). This is a powerful level from which to initiate change and in this state, we only need mostly just one or couple of experiences of learning to change our behaviour.
From the age 7 until we reached our puberty, during the normal state of eyes open, awake and alert our brains were mainly operating in the alpha state of 7 to 14 Hz. Now during light sleep, meditation, or eyes closed relaxation we reach alpha state. At this level effective learning can take place after about 21 repetitions. Practice a new behaviour for about 21 times and that behaviour becomes a habit. Strong levels of physical healing can take place when the brain is at 10 Hz
Since puberty during the normal state of eyes open, awake and alert our brain operates in the beta state, 14 to 21 Hz during the normal state of eyes open, awake and alert. In this state it may take many thousands of repetitions to learn a new behaviour. To create significant change in our lives at this level takes extensive deal of time and effort.
Brain waves less than 7 Hz are very ideal for rejuvenating and to maintain good health.
0.5 Hz – Relaxation, Soothe headaches
0.5 – 1.5 Hz – Pain relief. Endorphin release
0.9 Hz – Euphoric feeling
1 Hz – Well being. Harmony and balance
1 – 3 Hz – Profound relaxation, restorative sleep. Tranquility and peace
2.5 Hz – Production of endogenous opiates (pain killers, reduce anxiety)
2.5 Hz – Relieves migraine pain. Produces endogenous opiates
3 – 8 Hz – Deep relaxation, meditation. Lucid dreaming
3 – 8 Hz – Increased memory, focus, creativity
3.4 Hz – Helps achieve restful sleep
3.5 Hz – Feeling of unity with everything. Whole being regeneration
3.9 Hz – Self renewal, enhanced inner awareness
4 Hz – Enkephalin release for reduced stress
4 Hz – Allows brain to produce enkaphalins, all natural pain killer
4 Hz – Full memory scanning. Releases enkephalins
4.Hz – Vital for memory and learning. Problem solving, object naming
4 – 7 Hz – Profound inner peace, emotional healing. Lowers mental fatigue
4 – 7 Hz – Deep meditation, near-sleep brainwaves.
4.5 Hz – Brings about Buddha’s state of consciousness, Buddhist chants.
4.9 Hz – Induce relaxation and deeper sleep
4.9 Hz – Introspection. Relaxation, meditation
5 Hz – Reduces sleep required. Replaces need for extensive dreaming
5.3 Hz – Allows relaxing breathing, free and efficient
5.5 Hz – Inner guidance, intuition
6.5 Hz – Activates creative frontal lobe
7.5 Hz – Activates creative thought for art, invention, music. Problem solving
7.5 Hz – Ease of overcoming troublesome issues
7.8 Hz – Schumann earth resonance. Grounding, meditative, Leaves us revitalized
8 Hz – Associated with the mouth. Brings creativity
8- 10 Hz Super-learning new information, memorization, not comprehension.
10 Hz – Enhanced serotonin release. Mood elevation, arousal, stimulant
10 Hz – Provides relief from lost sleep, improves general mood
10 Hz – Mood elevator. Used to dramatically reduce headaches
10 Hz – Clarity, subconscious correlation. Releases serotonin
11 Hz – Relaxed yet awake state
11 – 14 Hz – Increased focus and awareness
12 Hz – Centering, mental stability.
12 – 15 Hz – Relaxed focus, improved attentive abilities
12 – 14 Hz – Learning frequency, good for absorbing information passively
13 – 27 Hz – Promotes focused attention toward external stimuli
13 – 30 Hz – Problem solving, conscious thinking
14 Hz – Awakeness, alert. Concentration on tasks, Focusing, vitality.
16 Hz – Bottom of hearing range. Releases oxygen/calcium into cells
18 – 24 Hz — Euphoria, can result in headaches, anxiety.
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For Christians, I teach my patients the Centering Prayer which originated with Benedictine monasteries around 400AD. Visit contemplativeoutreach.org. Is also called Contemplative Prayer.
Thanks so much for this Ruth! I have been meditating for 40 years (began with TM and expanding into other practices over the years). I know that meditation is the single most significant daily practice I have honored. It has allowed me to navigate this glorious journey of life…including all of the painfully challenging, dark and difficult times…with a greater sense of mindfulness, ease, grace and joy! And…my sleep has been exceptionally wonderful for all these years. I have always been in such gratitude for the great sleep I get….envied by others. With this study, I now know why….hadn’t connected the two previously!
I look forward to sharing your post with the women from across the country in my Joy In Living ‘Welcome To Meditation’ tele-seminar. They are all having such fun in learning easy meditative practices…the ultimate self-care, and I am having the time of my professional life teaching it!
Hi Anna,
I’m BRAND NEW at this and have never been able to meditate, nor can I turn my brain off, especially when it’s time to sleep! Can you please tell me what would be best for me, especially with the horrific insomnia! I’d also LOVE LOVE LOVE to be completely balanced. Thank you Anna.
Hi Nancy! I just wanted to say that I was completely in the same place in life a few years ago, a bit hyperactive and in constant mental stimulation – my mother gave me a TM (transcendental meditation) class as a gift and it honestly did change my life forever, in the best way. I have so much respect for all types of meditation but TM is what I’ve integrated into my life the most consistently, and what’s nice about this particular school of meditation is how widespread the community is… you can find a class or teacher pretty much anywhere in the world, in my experience. Before I started meditating, I was happy but just felt always a bit on the edge and like I was doing a lot without necessarily enjoying all of it. I also felt like I was missing out on something and just not quite operating in the most effective way possible. I honestly thought the process was going to be boring and was annoyed at the idea of taking 20 precious minutes out of my life to add in “one more thing.” Now, it’s the one more thing I always get to, no matter what, because it makes absolutely everything in my life fall into place and become way more streamlined and effective. And it’s the opposite of boring! Meditating can make me feel calm if I’ve been too stressed and hyper, excited and inspired if I’ve been feeling apathetic, blissful when I’ve been feeling down, and smarter and sharper when I’ve been feeling brain-fuzzy. It honestly let’s me access whatever I need to at any given time and some of my best ideas float in during or after meditation. Just wanted to give my two cents and some insight into one meditation experience! Best of luck to you 🙂
My husband had very serious heart surgery last December. Practicing mindful meditation is definitely helping the healing process become more rapid. We can both see and experience the benefits of mindfulness and meditation.
We do not have to be sitting and passive to meditate either. Here is a concentration activity that can be done in any number of situations where we are engaging the world.
I frequently teach people a game called ‘Just Say Gone’ based on techniques developed by Shinzen Young. Here is a quick description of the game.
In this game you score points every time you notice something leaving your awareness. Since we think in three modalities that are easy to monitor (see,hear,feel or visual, auditory, kinesthetic /emotional) there are three areas to look for points.
In the visual/see area every movement of your hear with eyes open has object disappear from your visual field. So you just say gone noting what left your visual field. In the auditory/hear field every pause in sounds coming from music, or other’s speech, or even a clock would indicate an ending. So you just say gone. Every time you complete an exhale; it is over. So you just say gone. Similarly for any body movement.
For the competitive individual there are few limits on how in depth this noting can happen and how quickly. The results of this exercise is an acute awareness of the present moment and severe limits our ability to mentally talk, day dream, or think in our typical analytical ways.
The resulting state is a deep sense of peace and connectedness to our surroundings.
Enjoy!!
That is the best most strate forward easy Peezee most affective game ever before… Thank you… U connected my thoughts for me! Thank you thank you for school counselors with an open mind!!!
A (very basic) question: how is meditation different from sleep? What does the brain do in meditation that it doesn’t do during sleep? I’m asking, even though I’ve been doing TM (on and off, admittedly) for
41 years. Many thanks.
I don’t meditate per say, I have been training my brain a couple times a week with my 2 channel eeg device. I almost always include training gamma up across which ever sites I might be training at the time. I wonder what my brain would look like in such a study? Does nero-feedback training move the brain to resemble a mediator?
The word “meditation” intimidates people… I just look at the back of my eyelids for 20 minutes during quiet time… It looks like amebas in a Petri dish.. Interesting and dreamy…
Meditation has changed my life. For the beter. I recommend it without doubt. For people who have trouble getting started I would suggest guided meditaion to get you in the right place. Its a great way to start and such fun too. Hey! give it a whirl!
The worst that can happen- you will feel like you had a nice rest!
The best that can happen- you will change your life!!!
Yes I can say that I am a different person, not as easily stressed out like myself more, ablbe to listen more compassionately life is lighter am over 80 and loving life more to a large degree I feel meditation has helped have done mindfulness weekends and would like to preach from the rooftops but it is not preaching! the best ann
This is an arltcie that makes you think “never thought of that!”