Scientific research shows floating reduces anxiety and depression
Running the float centre we have the privilege of witnessing the wonderful benefits of floatation on a daily basis, and it’s great to see the body of scientific research confirming these benefits steadily growing.
Benefits that last and last
If you’ve floated yourself you’ll know that it makes you feel good. But did you know that a single float can radically decrease anxiety and depression? What’s even more exciting is that these effects are cumulative with regular floating, so that the baseline level of anxiety decreases with more floats.
The latest study from the Laureate Institute for Brain Research was just published in the Journal of Mood and Anxiety Disorders, the official journal of the Anxiety and Depression Association of America.
The research found that the anxiolytic and antidepressant effects from a single float session reliably persist for at least two days!
Goodbye anxiety and depression, hello serenity
75 adults with clinical anxiety and/or depression completed a series of 6 floats, with their symptoms being measured immediately after and 4, 8, 24 and 48 hours after the float. The study found significant decreases in anxiety and depression, and significant increases in serenity which persisted through the full 48 hours. Repeated floating was associated with lower baseline levels of anxiety at later sessions.
You can read the full study here
It’s great to have robust data supporting what we have heard time and time again from our customers: that floating makes them feel good, and that those effect last for days afterwards.
Big thanks to Dr. Sahib Khalsa and the awesome team of float researchers at LIBR!
If you’d like to keep up to date with float research, and even get involved, check out the Float Research Collective.
So if you’re feeling anxious or depressed, we would like to invite you to come and float so you can discover the joys for yourself, and experience how good you can feel when you allow the benefits of floatation to ripple out into your life.
