Latest Research On Meditation
You know that I am a fan of meditation for increasing brainpower. Well, the latest research shows that it not only makes your brain perform better, but may actually reduce the amount of sleep you need. This is good news for those of us who don't feel like we have the time for meditation. Perhaps we can just take the time from our sleep time if we want to.
A study at the University of Kentucky in Lexington, used the established "psychomotor vigilance task," which is used to quantify the effects of sleepiness on mental ability. Participants look at a LCD screen and press a button when they see an image pop up. Typical response time is under 300 milliseconds. Sleep-deprived people consistently take longer, or just miss the stimulus altogether.
Subjects had 40 minutes of sleep, meditation, reading, or light conversation before and after testing. All subjects tried all four pre-test activities in different tests. A 40 minute nap had already been proven to improve performance, when subjects are given an hour to get past the after-nap grogginess. The researchers were surprised to find, though, that only meditation caused an immediate improvement in performance. This was true even though none of the volunteers were experienced meditators.
Interestingly, every single subject showed improvement. When testing was done after a night without sleep, the improvement was even more dramatic. What was not determined, is why meditation improves brain performance.
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