Short Term Physiological Effects of Meditation on Induced Task-Related Stress
File(s)
Date
2017Author
Hill, Alexander
Phouybanhdyt, Cat
Voelker, Zach
Yeager, Indi
Publisher
Journal of Advanced Student Sciences (JASS)
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
Stressful stimuli can lead to serious health consequences when not managed correctly;
however, meditative practices have shown to be an effective management technique in reducing
the body’s physiological response to stress. Although the focus of many past studies have
involved long-term meditation, this study investigated the impact of short-term meditation prior
to involvement in a stress inducing task. We hypothesize that meditation prior to task-induced
stress will reduce physiological measurements of stress. Physiological measurements of blood
pressure, heart rate, and respiratory rate were taken for a meditative group and non-meditative
group, and percent changes were calculated for mean blood pressure and respiratory rate to
measure the quantitative effects of meditation. In this case, stress was defined as a change from
homeostatic or baseline levels. The effect of meditation on blood pressure and heart rate were not
significant and did not strongly support the experimental hypothesis. The effect of meditation on
respiratory rate, however, was significant, and did support the experimental hypothesis. This
displayed that a short meditation session prior to participating in a mental, stress-inducing task
aided in minimizing some physiological responses to stress.
Subject
Blood Pressure
Cardiovascular
Heart Rate
Mean Blood Pressure
Mean Arterial Pressure
Meditation
Pulmonary
Relaxation
Respiration
Task Anxiety
Task Related Stress
Permanent Link
http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1793/81869Description
An article that appeared in JASS, issue 2017