The effect of ten versus twenty minutes of mindfulness meditation on state mindfulness and affect.

A single session of mindfulness meditation, whether 10 or 20 minutes, increases state mindfulness more than listening to a National Geographic article. The 10-minute meditation produced a greater increase in state mindfulness than its control, but there was no difference between the 10- and 20-minute meditation groups. People with lower trait mindfulness benefited more from meditation versus control in terms of state mindfulness. Among those with high trait mindfulness, the 20-minute meditation led to greater reductions in state anxiety than the 10-minute one. Overall, dose-response effects were minimal, suggesting 10 and 20 minutes of meditation improve state mindfulness comparably.

Study at a glance

Abstract

We aimed to elucidate the effects of "dose" of a single-session of mindfulness meditation on state mindfulness and affect as well as moderators of effects. 372 adults recruited remotely via Amazon's MTurk platform were randomly assigned to either a: 10-min mindfulness meditation, 20-min mindfulness meditation, 10-min control, or 20-min control. Control conditions were recordings of a National Geographic article. Primary outcomes were changes in state mindfulness, anxiety, and negative and positive affect. Moderator variables included neuroticism, trait mindfulness, and prior meditation experience. Collapsing across doses, participants in mindfulness conditions reported greater increases in state mindfulness than in control conditions. There was a greater increase in state mindfulness in the 10-min mindfulness condition versus 10-min control condition. There were no differences between 10- and 20-min mindfulness conditions. Exploratory moderation analyses indicated that meditation (10 or 20) versus control (10 or 20) predicted increased state mindfulness among participants with lower trait mindfulness. Additionally, 20-min versus 10-min meditation predicted greater decreases in state anxiety among individuals with high trait mindfulness. Dose-response relationships were minimal, suggesting that 10 and 20 min of meditation may improve state mindfulness comparably. Findings support the benefits of brief mindfulness meditation and suggest that trait mindfulness moderates certain outcomes.