Short-term autonomic and cardiovascular effects of mindfulness body scan meditation
Annals of Behavioral Medicine November 15, 2006 Blaine Ditto, Marie Eclache, Natalie Goldman 357 citations
A body scan meditation, a component of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction, produces distinct immediate physiological effects compared to other relaxing activities. In two laboratory studies, healthy young adults showed greater increases in respiratory sinus arrhythmia (a measure of cardiac parasympathetic activity) during meditation than during progressive muscular relaxation or listening to a novel. Meditation also shortened the cardiac pre-ejection period, indicating increased sympathetic activity. These opposing autonomic changes may explain why heart rate did not change. Women experienced a larger drop in diastolic blood pressure during meditation, while men showed a greater increase in cardiac output. The findings suggest that body scan meditation triggers a unique combination of parasympathetic and sympathetic responses.