How Much Meditation Does It Take to Make a Difference?

The best evidence for meditation comes from structured programmes of regular practice over several weeks, and it shows small to moderate improvements in anxiety, depression, and pain. That’s a real effect, but smaller than many claims about meditation suggest, and the research doesn’t say how little practice is enough.

This article is general information, not medical advice. Meditation isn’t a substitute for treatment of depression or anxiety.

What the Evidence Shows

The most careful review is Goyal and colleagues’ 2014 meta-analysis for the US Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. They included only randomised trials with an active comparison, such as health education, so that expectations and attention couldn’t explain the results: 47 trials with 3,515 participants.

• Mindfulness programmes gave moderate-strength evidence of improved anxiety, depression, and pain, with effect sizes of about 0.2 to 0.4, still present three to six months later.
• There was low-strength evidence of reduced stress and better mental health-related quality of life.
• There was little or no evidence of effects on positive mood, attention, sleep, weight, eating habits, or substance use.
• Meditation wasn’t better than other active treatments, such as medicines or exercise, where trials compared them.

How Much Practice the Trials Used

The trials studied structured courses rather than a few minutes a day with an app, such as mindfulness-based stress reduction, which has weekly group sessions over eight weeks and home practice between them. The review couldn’t say how much practice is needed. What was tested is regular practice over weeks, so that’s the safest thing to aim for.

Keeping It Going

• Pick a time and a cue. After coffee, or before bed, the same each day.
• Start small. Five or ten minutes you actually do beats thirty you skip.
• Use a course or guide for the first weeks; most trials were taught programmes.
• Track the practice, not the feeling. Whether you sat today is in your control; how calm you felt isn’t.

Following It in Kaizora

Log a session as an activity on Activities, and Kaizora adds its duration to Meditation Time and counts it in Meditation Sessions. A habit such as “at least 5 meditation sessions in 7 days” keeps the practice regular without one missed day breaking it; see Habits. Rate your Mood and Stress Level each day too, and Correlations shows whether your weeks with more practice are your calmer ones; see Why Rate Your Mood, Energy, and Stress Every Day?

The Short Version

• Meditation programmes give small to moderate improvements in anxiety, depression, and pain.
• The trials tested structured courses of regular practice over weeks.
• Evidence for effects on sleep, attention, and positive mood is weak.
• Aim for regular practice over weeks, as the trials tested.

Sources

• Goyal M et al., “Meditation programs for psychological stress and well-being: a systematic review and meta-analysis,” JAMA Internal Medicine 174, no. 3 (2014): 357–368. doi:10.1001/jamainternmed.2013.13018