The notion that meditation needs years of training before it leaves a mark on the brain is being challenged. A research team at the National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (NIMHANS) in India reported in the international academic journal Mindfulness that within just a few minutes of starting a meditation in which practitioners watch their breathing, brainwave patterns change clearly, with the shift generally peaking at around seven minutes. Another study from the United States reported that indicators in both the brain and the blood moved in step after only seven days of focused practice. The findings suggest the effects of meditation are not only “built up slowly”.
Changes that begin within minutes, with a peak at around 7 minutes
According to a research team at NIMHANS’s Consciousness Research Centre, brainwave changes during meditation begin to appear at around 2 to 3 minutes, reach their maximum between 7 and 10 minutes, and are especially prominent at the seven-minute mark across multiple participants. As reported by ScienceDaily and MedicalXpress, after passing this point, researchers observed an increase in the activity of the theta and alpha bands, alongside a decrease in delta waves and some gamma waves. The pattern is interpreted as a shift towards a state in which the brain remains relaxed while maintaining attention. Researcher Malipeddi Saketh, who took part in the study, said: “Measurable changes in brain activity can appear within just a few minutes of starting meditation” and added that “even short meditation can have a meaningful impact on the brain’s dynamics”.
Recording 103 people’s brainwaves using 128 electrodes
The team recruited 103 participants in total, including a control group of 28 people with no meditation experience, 33 beginners at an entry stage, and 42 experienced meditators. While participants practised “breath watching” meditation from the Iyengar Yoga tradition, the team recorded signals using a 128-channel EEG measurement device, and focused analysis on changes during the initial 10 minutes within each 15-minute session. Unlike earlier studies with smaller samples, the team’s explanation was that they divided participants into three groups and compared them, allowing them to examine how meditation experience is reflected in the brain’s response.
Responses also show up in beginners, but are clearer in the experienced
One point of interest is that the change was not restricted to people with long training. Brainwave activity shifted within the first few minutes regardless of meditation experience. However, among experienced meditators, theta and theta–alpha band activity remained higher throughout the session. The results can be read as meaning that the deeper, more stable response becomes stronger the longer someone practises, yet beginners can also cross the threshold for change within a short time. The research team also suggested that providing short meditation—around seven minutes—in a digital format could make it an accessible mental health tool.
“In seven days, even the body changes”… another piece of evidence from across the Atlantic
Around the same period, a study also emerged in the United States showing meditation’s rapid effects. A team from the University of California, San Diego (UC San Diego) reported in the international journal Communications Biology that after 20 healthy adults took part in seven days of intensive training, brain imaging and blood markers changed together. Participants completed a residential programme that included about 33 hours of meditation, and an analysis using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) found a tendency for activity in brain regions associated with inner rumination to decrease. The team also said they observed changes in biomarkers related to pain relief and indicators of immune responses. Professor Hemal Patel of this study explained: “This is not simply biological confirmation of stress relief or relaxation—rather, we confirmed at a biological level that the way the brain relates to reality itself changes.”
Shorter, and therefore even more welcome news—yet with caution
Although the two studies were conducted in different countries and using different methods, they point in the same direction. The effects of meditation do not necessarily require years, and the brain can begin to respond within minutes. Still, because both studies are early-stage work with relatively small samples, it is too soon to extend the results to interpret them as treatment effects for particular diseases. Further, broader follow-up research is needed to determine in what conditions, for whom, and how long short meditation provides ongoing help. Even so, it is fair to say science has once again confirmed that just a few minutes of breathing meditation each day is far from pointless.