For many in today's fast-paced world, stress seems inescapable. From looming work deadlines to responsibilities at home to the constant pings of digital distractions, our minds are in a perpetual state of overload. This relentless stress is more than just a temporary annoyance – it's a critical health issue.
Beyond simply making us feel overwhelmed, research continues to show that stress is a key factor in a wide variety of mental and physical ailments, ranging from anxiety and depression to heart disease and immune system dysfunction. Since stress doesn’t seem to be going away any time soon, finding ways to combat and assuage the effects of stress on our lives becomes that much more necessary to finding a healthy, balanced life.
April is Stress Awareness Month, which aims to serve as a reminder to acknowledge the pervasive impacts of stress in our lives and remind us of the importance of managing stress effectively. In the quest for techniques to manage the flood of stress we encounter on a day-to-day basis, floating rises to the surface. Beyond offering a momentary respite from the pressures of the world, floating offers a scientifically backed route to profound stress relief and well-being.
Let’s dive into how stress affects our lives and health, and how floatation therapy can not only put a pause on stress, but actually start to undo some of the tolls stress has taken on our bodies and minds.
The Impact of Stress on Our Lives and Health
Stress, often termed as the 'silent killer,' infiltrates nearly every aspect of our lives, affecting our mental, emotional, and physical well-being. At its core, stress is the body's response to any demand or threat, triggering the 'fight or flight' reaction that prepares the body to act. While this response can be beneficial in short bursts, the problem arises when stress becomes chronic.
Mentally, chronic stress can manifest as anxiety, depression, and irritability, affecting our ability to think clearly and make decisions. It disrupts our sleep patterns and can lead to mental fatigue. Emotionally, it diminishes our capacity to manage our feelings and interact with others effectively, often leading to strained relationships and social withdrawal.
Physically, the impact of stress is equally daunting. It can cause or exacerbate conditions such as heart disease, hypertension, diabetes, and immune system disorders. Chronic stress triggers continuous release of the hormone cortisol, which, over time, can lead to weight gain, memory impairment, and a decrease in bone density and muscle mass. It also heightens the risk of stroke and has even been linked to reproductive issues in both men and women.
Moreover, the constant state of alertness induced by stress can lead to adrenal fatigue, where the adrenal glands can no longer keep pace with the body's demand for cortisol, leading to burnout. This state of chronic stress and its accompanying symptoms create a vicious cycle, further entrenching the negative effects on our health and well-being.
How Floating Can Mitigate Stress
The benefits of floatation therapy are both immediate and cumulative, meaning it provides both a short-term stress release solution, and a potential path to long-term wellness.
Initially, floating serves an escape from the incessant demands of daily life, offering a sanctuary where the mind can pause and rejuvenate. By creating an environment that drastically reduces sensory input, floatation tanks facilitate a deep state of relaxation that can be nearly impossible to achieve in the hustle and bustle of everyday life.
The buoyancy you experience during a float reduces the gravitational force on the body, allowing muscles and joints to release long-held tension and pain. The water is maintained at skin temperature, blurring the lines between the body and the surrounding water, further enhancing the sensation of sensory release, and leading to a deep meditative state.
This environment promotes a shift from the body's sympathetic nervous system (the fight-or-flight response) which is active during stress, to the parasympathetic nervous system, which is responsible for relaxation and recovery. This results in a decrease in cortisol levels and the balancing of the body's biochemical state, which can lead to significant acute reductions in stress and anxiety.
Moreover, the benefits of floating extend beyond the immediate post-float serenity. Individuals who integrate floating into their regular wellness routine often report sustained improvements in sleep quality, a reduction in chronic pain, and an enhanced ability to navigate daily stressors with ease and grace. Floating is not only a temporary escape but can actually foster a lasting change in how we interact with and perceive our world and the stressors within it. Over time, this can lead to a significant reversal of the negative health effects of chronic stress, offering a pathway to a healthier, more balanced life.
Ultimately, while stress is an inevitable part of modern life, that doesn't mean we have to live with the adverse effects on our health and well-being. Effective stress management strategies like floatation therapy can pause and even reverse the tolls of stress, offering a valuable tool in the quest for a healthier, more balanced existence.
Stress may be a constant, but so is the relief found in a float tank. This Stress Awareness Month, uncover the science behind floatation therapy and its calming effects. Read on in our newest blog post.
Enhancing Sleep Quality With Floating: Part 2
March 10th-16th is Sleep Awareness Week, a time to highlight the importance of good sleep health and explore ways to promote better sleep practices for a more energized and fulfilling life.
In recognition, we thought it would be an opportune moment to delve into how floatation therapy can be one of the more serene and effective approaches to improving your sleep.
How Does Floatation Therapy Impact Sleep?
For those already familiar with floating, you know the profound relaxation that envelops you. But the impact of floatation therapy on your sleep goes far beyond just this blissful feeling of tranquility. Floating has the ability to positively impact several crucial elements affecting the quality of your sleep.
The Slumber-Promoting Powers of Sensory Deprivation
At the core of the float experience is sensory deprivation - that cocooning elimination of external light, sound and tactile input. This is what allows your brain to release its grip on the outside world and turn inward, initiating processes that not only relax you in the moment but purposefully prepare your mind and body for sleep.
By reducing sensory stimulus, floating dials down your sympathetic "fight-or-flight" responses while giving your parasympathetic "rest-and-digest" functions full control. This pivotal shift naturally prompts the release of sleep-promoting neurotransmitters while stress hormones dissipate. Your sleep-wake cycles are effectively re-set, priming you for sustained, high-quality sleep.
A Sanctuary from Stress
Stress is a huge barrier to good sleep. It not only makes it difficult to fall asleep but can also affect the quality of sleep by causing frequent awakenings and lighter sleep stages. Floatation therapy offers a powerful countermeasure to stress by significantly reducing cortisol levels, the body’s primary stress hormone, and promoting a state of deep relaxation. This reduction in stress not only helps in falling asleep more easily but also contributes to a deeper, more restful sleep.
Pain Relief for Better Sleep
For individuals suffering from chronic pain, achieving a good night's sleep can seem like an insurmountable challenge. The weightlessness provided by the buoyant saltwater in float tanks can offer profound relief from physical discomfort, particularly in the back and joints. This relief is not temporary; the effects can last for days after a session, providing a window of opportunity for better quality sleep by minimizing the pain that often disrupts sleep cycles.
Mental Health and Sleep Quality
Anxiety and depression are closely linked with sleep disturbances, creating a cycle that can be difficult to break. Floatation therapy offers a unique environment that promotes mental wellness by facilitating meditation and mindfulness, helping to alleviate the symptoms of anxiety and depression. This mental clarity and calmness can make it easier to fall asleep and maintain a healthy sleep cycle, breaking the cycle of sleep disturbances exacerbated by mental health issues.
Resetting Your Circadian Rhythms
Our sleep-wake cycles are governed by our body's internal circadian rhythms. When these get disrupted by things like jet lag, irregular schedules or exposure to blue light screens before bed, it can really impact our sleep quality. Floatation therapy provides a natural way to "reset" these cycles.
The complete removal of external light and sound cues gives your body's clock a fresh slate, while the relaxation allows your circadian rhythms to resynchronize to their optimal patterns. Many find that a float helps their sleep patterns regulate after periods of disruption, getting them back on a healthy, consistent sleep schedule.
How to Make the Most of Floating’s Sleep Health Benefits
If you’re wanting to fully unlock the sleep-promoting powers of floatation therapy, take a look at these strategies to maximize the rejuvenating benefits:
Optimizing Session Timing
The timing of your floatation therapy sessions can significantly affect their impact on your sleep. For many, floating in the evening, a few hours before bedtime, helps prepare the mind and body for sleep, creating an ideal state of relaxation that leads seamlessly into a night of deep, restorative sleep. However, the optimal timing can vary based on individual circadian rhythms and schedules. Experimenting with different times of the day may help you identify when a float benefits you the most, aligning with your natural sleep-wake cycle for the greatest improvement in sleep quality.
Combining with Sleep Hygiene Practices
To maximize the sleep-enhancing effects of floatation therapy, consider integrating it with established sleep hygiene practices. Creating a pre-sleep routine that includes limiting exposure to screens and bright lights an hour before bed can further signal to your brain that it's time to wind down. Incorporating floatation therapy into your schedule as part of a broader commitment to good sleep hygiene—such as maintaining a consistent sleep schedule and creating a comfortable, conducive sleep environment—can synergize the benefits, leading to even better sleep quality.
Stick With a Routine
Like any lifestyle adjustment, consistency is key when it comes to maximizing the sleep benefits of floating. While a single float can provide great sleep that night, establishing a routine sends stronger signals to your body about adopting new, healthier sleep patterns.
Aim to book floats at the same cadence - whether weekly, bi-weekly or monthly. And try to schedule them around the same time of day each session. This allows your circadian rhythms and sleep-wake cycles to become accustomed to the new normal of restorative sleep prompted by floating. Over time, you're more likely to develop lasting, high-quality sleep habits.
Embrace a Natural Path to Better Sleep
Floatation therapy takes a comprehensive, drug-free approach to improving sleep quality by relieving stress, minimizing pain, promoting mental wellness, and naturally balancing hormones.
This Sleep Awareness Week, we encourage you to explore how floating can transform your nights, leaving you energized and ready to embrace each new day. Invest in the luxury of deep, restorative sleep and an overall improved sense of well-being. Book your float session today and prepare to wake up to a new world of quality sleep.
70 Years Of Floating
This year marks 70 years since the world's first float tank was invented in 1954. What began as fringe experiments and personal exploration has transformed into a mainstream wellness activity embraced around the globe.
As we reflect on the decades past, we wanted to share how far floating has come as both an industry and as a recognized tool for bolstering wellness and performance. As you can imagine, there’s a lot of history worth delving into (far more than we can cover in this short blog post), but we’ll be covering the high level eras and milestones over 7 decades of float tanks.
The Early Years - 1950s to 1960s
The story of floating begins in 1954 when American neuroscientist and medical doctor John C. Lilly constructed the first isolation tank at the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). At the time, the scientific world was fascinated by the mysteries of consciousness and perception. Many theories circulated about what would happen if you deprived the brain of external stimuli. Would it lead to sensory trauma? Psychosis or hallucinations?
Curious, and looking to investigate these theories more closely, Lilly modified a large, abandoned water tank at NIMH to house his first experiments. He constructed custom breathing masks to put minimal pressure on the skin, and maintained neutral sound and temperature by fully submerging the participant in skin temperature water. Conventional wisdom said that these conditions were very likely to be distressing. However, Lilly's experiences as his own first subject in the tank quickly disproved those notions.
Rather than any kind of trauma, he reported feeling a profound serenity and physical relaxation. The lack of distraction didn't derange his mind – it unlocked access to higher states of awareness unlike anything he'd known. His first prolonged floats suggested sensory isolation didn't inherently deprive the brain at all. In fact, it seemed like it might have the potential to make us more conscious, rather than less.
Buoyed by these revelations, Lilly continued improving the tank design over the 1950s and 60s. He focused on optimizing comfort, safety, and the body's floating experience. At NIMH, his colleague Dr. Jay Shurley also extensively studied himself and others in the tanks. Their work firmly established flotation's merits within the scientific community. Beyond those directly involved in the research, however, few were aware of these strange "sensory deprivation" devices.
Over the coming years this would change dramatically as word spread both about Dr. Lilly’s research and the remarkable states it could produce. In the late 60s, Lilly published Programming and Metaprogramming in the Human Biocomputer, which would become a cult-classic highlighting his early floatation experiments. He also started teaching workshops on floatation in California, and the stage was being set for an era where tanks would make the leap into the public realm.
Tanks Go Commercial - 1970s
By the 1970s, floating was still by no means mainstream, but it was starting to garner attention from certain circles and individuals. In 1972 Lilly met Glenn Perry, a talented engineer, at one of his floating workshops. Together, they worked to modify the basic design, developing an early version of the style that we still use in our center today (in which you lie on your back in a saturated epsom salt solution, rather than being fully submerged in a fresh water tank).
In 1973, along with Glenn’s wife Lee, they formed the first commercial float tank manufacturing company, Samadhi Tank Co., which is still producing tanks 50 years later. For the first time, regular folks could easily purchase and install these exotic devices in their homes.
Then, in 1979, Samadhi opened up the first commercial float center, which was located in Beverly Hills with 5 float tanks that customers could book time in. The business proved to be an immediate success, and between this and Samadhi’s manufacturing arm, the float industry had officially begun.
Rapid Growth - 1980s
In 1980, the movie Altered States was released, an underground classic which depicted actor William Hurt's character using a float tank for psychedelic experiments. That same year, the second float center opened in Hollywood, using the name Altered States and further drawing public awareness and curiosity.
Articles in major outlets like Rolling Stone explored this strange new practice. Within another year, another 5 centers had opened their doors, and that was just the beginning as more and more centers continued popping up in cities across North America to meet the growing demand.
The field also began attracting serious scientific interest. Researchers such as Tom Fine and Dr. John Turner studied floating's effects on everything from high blood pressure to athletic performance. Major universities were supplying their labs with dedicated float tanks for experiments, and for the first time rigorous evidence was collected on the many benefits of floating.
Conferences like those hosted by the Float Tank Association (FTA) and the International REST Investigators Society (IRIS) provided a hub to share ideas and new research. The evidence was clear – floating had significant impacts on both mind and body.
By the mid-1980s, there were commercial float centers worldwide. What had seemed like a fringe practice was transitioning into a legitimate health and wellness industry with proven benefits.
The Sudden Fall of Floating - Late 80s and 90s
Then the AIDS epidemic hit, and the rapid growth of floating came to an abrupt halt. The emerging AIDS crisis fueled public fears around use of communal water, even though floating itself was low risk.
Misinformation and panic surrounding AIDS caused the Western market for floating to collapse practically overnight. In just a few years, the vast majority of North American and European centers had shuttered.
For a practice that had been gaining so much momentum, it was a devastating setback that would require two decades to fully recover from. Even as the industry shrank in the West, though, pockets of passionate floaters kept the practice alive in other parts of the world.
In the United Kingdom, Europe, and the Nordic countries, strong floating communities persisted through the decline. Centers in these regions maintained their client bases and even saw some measured growth despite the crisis.
Research also quietly continued, in both the United States and abroad in countries like Sweden. As Western funding dried up through the 90s, it was these international labs that would end up laying the scientific groundwork for the future resurgence of floating.
Persistence and Growth - 2000s
The new millennium arrived, and floating in the Western world was limited to a small number of devotees keeping the practice alive, along with the very few commercial centers that were still active.
However, that was soon to change as new research continued to come out abroad and a very popular and very vocal Joe Rogan began regular endorsement of float tanks. In the late 2000s, for the first time in a long while, new commercial centers were beginning to open up, and new manufacturers were beginning to produce float tanks.
Resurgence - 2010s
Throughout the 2010s, the number of float tank centers in the United States grew from a couple dozen to hundreds. At the same time, technological improvements enhanced the experience with advanced filtration systems and more refined tank designs and, as floating went mass market, even more manufacturers entered the industry.
Float research (much of which we’ve covered in previous blog posts) began to receive funding and attention again, and some of the most advanced floatation therapy labs were constructed, such as the Float Lab at the Laureate Institute for Brain Research (LIBR). With more funding and participants than ever before, the research during these recent years has demonstrated the benefits of floating, both mental and physical, time and time again.
More celebrity endorsements also began rolling in from professional athletes, and floating got prominent screen time in popular shows like Stranger Things and The Big Bang Theory. By the mid 2010s, what had begun decades prior as a peculiar science experiment had blossomed into a thriving global wellness movement.
What Does The Future Hold?
It's incredible to reflect on how far floating has come since those earliest days at NIMH. One thing is certain – the future still holds boundless potential. As more and more people discover floating for themselves, there are surely innovations, applications, and discoveries that will continue to be uncovered.
Just as we celebrate all of those that came before us in helping to build this salty industry, we also look ahead to the future with great anticipation.
Elevating Your Aspirations With Floatation
We all have goals we want to achieve, whether it’s pushing our physical limits, developing new skills, advancing in our careers, or establishing healthier lifestyle habits. No matter how dedicated you are, the pursuit of these personal and professional objectives can sometimes feel like an uphill climb.
Finding the right support and tools is crucial for turning these aspirations into reality. At our float center, we've observed how floatation therapy not only complements but also enhances these endeavors, offering a unique space for physical rest and mental clarity that's essential for achieving whatever diverse goals you might have set your sights on.
One key area where floating makes a significant impact is in physical well-being. For athletes, fitness enthusiasts, or anyone with physical objectives in mind, the benefits of float therapy are invaluable. Research shows that floating helps with performance, with physical recovery and injury prevention, and perhaps most importantly, with maintaining both a positive attitude and the motivation to keep at your goals.
These benefits extend far beyond the realms of athletics and fitness. People turn to float therapy for many physical reasons, including recovery from car accidents, management of rheumatoid arthritis, and alleviation of acute and chronic tension. Apart from the benefits of physical relief from pain, finding the mental strength necessary to keep moving towards improvement and a better life is integral to making progress. And this is true whether you’re at peak fitness, struggling to get back to a healthy equilibrium, and everything in between.
Floating also helps with aspirations in other domains, like learning and skill acquisition. In the tranquil environment inside our float tanks, free from external stimuli, the mind is able to review information and visualize activities with no distractions. It’s this lack of distraction that is often credited with the heightened focus, creativity, and concentration that floating provides.
Whether trying to learn a new language, train in music theory, polish public speaking abilities, or improve your golf swing, floating is a wonderful tool to amplify your results. Studies confirm flotation therapy’s positive effects on concentration, creativity, accelerated learning, and information retention (and golf swing, for that matter).
Furthermore, the relaxation and mental clarity afforded by floatation are conducive to deeper cognitive processing and understanding. Clients often describe a sense of mental rejuvenation following a float session, a state where complex concepts become more graspable and learning feels more intuitive. This mental clarity not only aids in the acquisition of new skills but also fosters a more profound and lasting understanding of them. It's a transformative experience that is able to turn the often daunting task of learning into an enjoyable and fulfilling journey.
Extending these benefits to something as serious as a career, it’s easy to see the overlap – innovation and problem-solving are invaluable skills. Floatation therapy, with its unique ability to enhance mental clarity and creativity, serves as an unexpected yet potent tool in the professional arena. The sensory-restricted environment of the float tank encourages a kind of mental expansiveness, where new ideas and creative solutions can emerge unimpeded by the usual barrage of daily stimuli.
Beyond sparking creativity, floatation is also a powerful ally in stress management. The tranquility achieved during floatation sessions offers a mental reset, invaluable for maintaining focus and motivation in high-pressure work environments. Regular floating can help mitigate the effects of job-related stress and anxiety, which runs rampant in modern culture. This not only contributes to immediate job performance but also supports long-term career goals by preventing burnout and promoting a healthier work-life balance.
Any kind of personal growth often requires us to reevaluate and change our habits, a process that can be both challenging and rewarding. Floatation therapy offers a unique environment for introspection, facilitating a deeper understanding of one’s thoughts, behaviors, and patterns. This introspective quality is pivotal in identifying and modifying ingrained habits. Whether it's adopting healthier lifestyle choices or breaking other less desirable habits, floating can lay the groundwork for these transformative changes.
From bolstering physical health to nurturing mental acuity and supporting personal transformation, floatation therapy is a versatile and powerful ally in the pursuit of a wide range of life goals. Whether you’re setting new objectives or striving to maintain your current goals, floatation can play a pivotal role in your success. Reach out to us to book your next session, and take a step towards achieving your goals, whatever they be.
Buoyant Benefits - Mental And Physical Recovery In Athletics
When we think of sports athletes, we often think of their success in terms of things like physical ability, performance under pressure, and in-game strategy. However, much of the brilliance and outstanding success that we see from top athletes is built on the less flashy foundation of practice, conditioning, diet, and recovery. Building on our article from last month about Dr. Matt Driller’s work around floating and sports, we’d like to take a look at some other research being done by Dr. Lydia Caldwell out of Ohio State University (now at University of North Texas).
Float tanks have become increasingly popular in recent years, with professional athletes and weekend warriors alike using them as a tool for both mental and physical recovery. Dr. Caldwell has been working with float tanks for years now, and presented at both the 2017 and the 2021 Float Conference. She has worked with both special forces military and with top performing athletes to increase their performance, and has incorporated float tanks into her research and protocols for both.
At the 2017 Float Conference, Dr. Caldwell presented on her own introduction to float tanks and their contributions to performance through both increased recovery, decreased fatigue, and improvements to mood. At that time, she was just beginning to work with the University of Ohio, and in 2021 she returned to the conference stage to present the findings from the float tanks that they installed there.
In her first study at the University of Ohio, Dr. Caldwell brought in 14 trained individuals who had never floated before. Each person floated for a 60 minute floatation session, and they had their mood and stress hormone levels assessed before and after the session. The results were overwhelmingly positive – floatation significantly reduced levels of the stress hormones cortisol, epinephrine, and norepinephrine. Participants also reported improvements in mood, including decreased tension and negative emotions.
This means that both from their own perspective, and on a base physiological level, these athletes were experiencing less stress after their float sessions. This reduction in stress was both physical and mental, and came along with a host of other side benefits and seemingly no negative effects (or contraindications).
Dr. Caldwell’s findings also highlighted the importance of acclimating to the experience, and not giving up after one session. Many participants took 10-15 minutes to truly relax and benefit from the experience, going through an initial period of discomfort and apprehension, before becoming more familiar with the float tank environment.
In her second study, Dr. Caldwell looked specifically at recovery after an intense resistance training workout. She brought in 12 experienced weightlifters to test how floating affected their ability to recover from a grueling lower body workout. This time she gave all of the participants 2 float sessions before the study, so that they were all familiar with the experience and wouldn’t experience any anxiety from going into a strange new environment.
The participants did an intensive squat session designed to induce soreness and muscle damage, and then either floated or watched calming nature videos in a recliner for 60 minutes. This program was very extensive, and they brought the athletes back into the lab to run more tests after 24 and 48 hours. They even went as far as controlling food intake prior to the study, and having each participant complete both recovery conditions.
The results were notable, and helped to define more clearly the things that floatation therapy helps out with in terms of physical strain and recovery:
The float group reported significantly less muscle soreness at 1, 24, and 48 hours after exercise compared to the control.
Floating also improved mood, fatigue, and pain sensations during the 48 hour recovery period.
However, floating did not seem to have any effect on metabolic recovery – both groups recovered blood lactate levels within the hour.
There was also no difference in muscle damage markers like creatine kinase levels or changes in muscle performance between the float and control groups.
While floating didn’t speed up actual muscle repair, it did make the participants feel subjectively better as they recovered from their strenuous workout. This is likely due to the profound relaxation and pain relief induced by the floatation experience.
As a result of these studies, Dr. Caldwell theorizes that float tanks may be best used as a chronic recovery tool throughout a training season, rather than just acutely before competitions. As with so many of these pioneering studies, more research is still needed to clarify the ideal timing and frequency of floating for exercise recovery.
Dr. Caldwell makes sure to point out that taking care of mental health is just as important as physical recovery in sports performance. If float tanks help athletes feel rejuvenated and better able to cope with their rigorous training demands, that benefit alone makes them a worthwhile recovery modality to consider.
And that goes for everyone, not just the professional athletes among us. Although performance is the goal, it’s all of the invisible work that is done on the sidelines that allows for brilliant highlight reels and competitive wins. Float tanks aren’t just a tool for physical recovery, they are a practice that allows us to maintain good moods, to cultivate a more resilient attitude, and ultimately to be more likely to achieve the goals that we’ve set for ourselves.
Rapid Recovery - Floatation Therapy For Elite Athletes
As research on floating continues to mature and push into the mainstream, it has more and more evidence to back up its benefits. Many pro athletes are regularly jumping into tanks these days, and at the 2019 Float Conference, leading sports scientist Dr. Matt Driller presented emerging research on how float tanks can aid athletic recovery and performance. The results are quite exciting.
Dr. Driller hails from New Zealand and has studied elite athlete recovery for over a decade. His homeland prides itself on punching above its weight in sports, in spite of its tiny population. With limited top talent, New Zealand obsesses over getting every possible edge when it comes to preventing injuries from overtraining.
“Recovery fundamentals like sleep, nutrition and periodization come first,” Driller explains. “But at the highest levels, those extra ‘one percenters’ can mean the difference between gold and going home empty-handed.” This led Driller to begin scientifically investigating if float tanks could provide that marginal gain which could make or break a champion.
In 2016, Driller published his first study on how floating impacts athletes. He looked at 60 members of Australia’s Olympic team (who already floated regularly before the study began).
Measuring their mood, soreness and stress markers before and after one 60-minute float, the results were striking. Significant improvements appeared across 15 out of 16 mood factors. Athletes reported feeling less worn out, less tired, more relaxed, and less tense after getting their float on. Muscle soreness also decreased substantially.
Here’s where it gets really interesting – athletes who actually fell asleep during the float saw the biggest mood enhancements. This suggests that combining floating with napping may supercharge benefits.
Despite intriguing initial findings, Driller is the first to admit this study had limitations. The sample size was small and it examined only psychological effects, not physical performance metrics. Still, it remains heavily cited in the media on floating simply because so little other research exists.
To address these gaps, Driller’s team completed a more thorough trial on 20 elite team sport athletes.
Researchers brought athletes into the lab for an intense late-night workout mimicking the strain from competition. Afterwards, athletes either did a 60-minute float or relaxed in a recliner as a control recovery. Measures of soreness, sleep quality, strength, power and speed were tracked both immediately after and the next morning.
The findings demonstrate clear physical benefits from floating in the participants. Compared to just resting, float recovery resulted in:
Higher quality sleep with less wakefulness.
Up to 24 hours less muscle soreness.
Increased pressure pain threshold the next day.
Faster sprint times 12 hours later.
More power output on vertical jumps the next morning.
As Driller summarizes, “Less pain means quicker readiness to train again. Better sleep equals better restoration. Maintaining speed and explosiveness is huge for back-to-back competitions.”
This compelling data reveals that floating may confer real performance advantages for elite athletes.
However, Driller emphasizes that research is still in its early stages. “We need more work to unpack why and how floating provides these benefits,” he says. Some questions he is exploring next include:
What happens with regular floating twice weekly over many weeks? Do effects accumulate?
How does floating right before and after competition impact performance and recovery?
Can detailed sleep studies reveal changes to sleep stages and quality?
How do effects compare to techniques like cold water immersion, compression, massage, and others?
Answers here will refine best practices on using float pods (alongside other modalities) for performance, especially in regards to recovery.
According to Driller, “It’s an exciting time to be a float researcher! Elite sports will continue pushing boundaries.” He looks forward to getting more controlled data to inform athletic and public use, rather than relying solely on studies with small sample sizes and anecdotal reports.
Curious to test out floating yourself?
“Give it a try – you might be surprised how profound silent floating can be, both mentally and physically,” Driller advises. Based on the results from these ongoing scientific explorations, float tanks may well provide that extra edge to elevate your own performance to the next level.
Beyond Floating: Unveiling the Power of Darkness
Stepping away from the familiar tranquility of our beloved float tanks, today we’ll survey another intriguing realm of sensory exploration. Imagine a therapy that, like floatation therapy, employs silence and solitude, but rather than the gentle touch of water, uses the enveloping cloak of total darkness to create a deeply introspective journey. A therapy that, instead of lasting 60-90 minutes like a typical float session, lasts for 3-7 days or more. Intrigued? Welcome to the immersive world of Darkness Therapy!
Helping to guide us through this intriguing world is Dr. Marek Maluš, an expert in Darkness Therapy doing his work and research out of the Czech Republic. Marek shared the history of Darkness Therapy, along with some of his insights and experimental results, in his 2015 Float Conference talk, and returned again for another conference talk in 2021 to elaborate and update us on his findings. Let’s step out of the light for a moment and immerse ourselves in the soothing realm of the unseen as we explore the genesis, evolution, and surprising benefits of Darkness Therapy.
Lights Out: The History of Darkness Therapy
Darkness has always held a certain mystery. Long before the advent of scientific understanding or the idea of "Darkness Therapy", spending time in darkness or seclusion was not an uncommon practice. In many ancient cultures, spending time in complete darkness was seen as a spiritual journey, a voyage inward.
Indian yogic traditions speak of darkness meditation, while some Buddhist monks have retreated into pitch-black caves for enlightenment. Ancient Egyptians recognized the power of darkness, seeming to make use of it in many of their mystical practices, as did certain Native American tribes.
Just as modern floatation therapy taps into sensory deprivation to awaken the mind's potential, these historic practices recognized that darkness had the power to reset, refresh, and renew the mind.
Darkness Therapy: From Caves to Chambers
Fast forward to the 1950s, where the roots of modern Darkness Therapy can be traced back to a practice known as REST or Restricted Environmental Stimulation Therapy. Before official research was ever published on Floatation Therapy (also known in the early days as Floatation REST / Wet REST), researchers were running experiments on reducing as much sensory input as possible in a regular room with a bed, developing what would come to be known as dry REST (or chamber REST).
Separate from this, but even more closely related to current Darkness Therapy, in the 1960s, the anthropologist Holger Kalweit introduced Dunkeltherapie (literally “Dark Therapy”) to Germany after taking part in a Tibetan tradition involving a 7 week long stay in a dark chamber. This can be considered the beginning of modern Darkness Therapy.
From here we continue our journey in the Czech Republic, where in 2006 the first Darkness Therapy chambers were introduced, and where it continues to thrive. In these, participants would spend between 3-7 days (or sometimes longer) in total darkness. By 2015, there were 15 providers of Darkness Therapy in the Czech Republic with between 1-3 chambers each, along with a few more in the neighboring country of Slovakia.
Shedding Light on Darkness
Let’s explore what these darkness retreats look like, and how they function. In his presentations, Dr. Maluš introduces two types of darkness therapy facilities, referred to as Type I and Type II, and all of these images belong to Dr. Maluš, from his presentations.
Type I facilities are larger and more comprehensive, often operated under medical supervision. These facilities offer a comfortable environment with amenities such as a shower, air conditioning, a bed, and even exercise devices. The highlight of this type is the provision of daily psychological sessions in complete darkness – a guide therapist comes to check in guests once a day, reviewing your needs and providing psychological assistance. It's a full-service experience, giving the participant both the environment and professional support to navigate their journey in the dark.
Type II facilities are simpler, more commonplace facilities and can often be found in more remote, rural locations. They offer a simpler setup compared to Type I, but still contain all the necessary amenities such as a toilet, shower, sink, and even a bidet for added convenience. You might have a CD or MP3 player for audio entertainment, but for Marek's studies, these are usually not permitted. Fresh fruits and food are delivered daily, and even during the deliveries the total darkness is maintained.
Staying at one of these is a little bit like a space mission, but you stay right here on Earth, taking a deep, restorative plunge into your own mind.
What's Next? More Research, More Understanding
There is very little official research done into Darkness Therapy (as opposed to floatation therapy, or even chamber REST). Dr. Marek Maluš shared results from several surveys and informal studies conducted in the last decade in the Czech Republic, all of which showed great promise. Despite its intriguing premise, historical significance, and strong praise from customers, Darkness Therapy has yet to gain funding for research on the same scale that floatation therapy has (which is still on a much, much smaller scale than, for example, pharmaceutical studies).
It has yet to enter popular culture in the same way, and it's also not nearly as widely accessible as floatation therapy yet. This is in no small part due to both the complexity of setting up the right environment and the unique and long-term commitment it requires from the participants.
Floating and Darkness Therapy: Cousins in Darkness
We hope this peek into the world of darkness therapy has piqued your curiosity! While we might not have Darkness Therapy available at our center yet, we're dedicated to providing you with the best darkness you can possibly find in our very own float tanks.
And let us know if you ever want to float longer than our standard sessions. Three or four hours isn’t quite the same as seven days in a chamber, but who knows? You might discover a whole new layer to your float practice.
Until next time, keep floating, keep exploring, and remember – whether in the stillness of a float tank, the quiet of a darkness chamber, or just lying in your bed at night – great things often come from taking a moment to rest, reset, and just breathe.
Floating For A Stronger Immune System
Stress and anxiety are all too common in today's fast-paced world. As a result, we're continuously seeking ways to unwind, destress, and ultimately, support our overall well-being. Floatation therapy, also known as sensory deprivation or float therapy, has been gaining in popularity over the last decade for its unique ability to provide deep relaxation and stress relief. But did you know that floating may also have potential benefits for your immune system?
In this blog post, we’ll be revisiting a presentation by Dr. Flux from the 2021 Float Conference, which looks at the science behind floatation therapy and its connection to immune health. This builds on Flux’s presentation from the 2018 Float Conference, with some new science and food for thought.
The Old Friends Hypothesis
To understand how floatation therapy may impact the immune system, it's essential to first delve into the "Old Friends Hypothesis." This hypothesis posits that our modern, sanitized environments have deprived us of essential microorganisms that once played a crucial role in regulating our immune systems.
Our adaptive immune system has grown with us through the thousands and thousands of years, and as we encountered new climates and new places to settle, we became introduced to new bacteria, many of which lived in and around the soil. These bacteria (our “Old Friends”) began to live with us, keeping us safe from other, more harmful microorganisms.
Over the years though, we have moved away from nature and into cities, changing our diet away from natural, whole foods. Doing so removed many of these microbes from our immune system, potentially throwing it out of balance. As a result, we may be more susceptible to inflammatory disorders, allergies, and autoimmune diseases. By reducing stress and promoting relaxation, floating helps to support our immune system, which is crucial in our ongoing battle against these modern-day health challenges.
Reducing Stress and Enhancing Immune Function
Floatation therapy has been shown to induce a state of deep relaxation, which in turn helps to reduce stress and anxiety. This is significant, as chronic stress has been linked to a weakened immune system. When we're stressed, our bodies produce cortisol, a hormone that can suppress immune function. By reducing cortisol levels, float therapy helps to support a healthier immune system.
In addition to lowering cortisol levels, floating may also decrease circulating metabolites of sympathetic nervous system hormones, like adrenaline and noradrenaline. This reduction, along with enhancing parasympathetic activity (our "rest and digest" system), points to the ability of floatation therapy to promote immunoregulation, which is a vital aspect of a healthy immune system.
Reducing Inflammation and Supporting Immune Health
Studies have shown that floating may help reduce inflammatory symptoms associated with specific disorders like rheumatoid arthritis and fibromyalgia. While more research is needed, these findings indicate that by reducing inflammation floating likely has a direct effect on the immune system.
An intriguing study conducted at the Laureate Institute for Brain Research discovered that floating decreased a pro-inflammatory marker called IL-1 alpha in participants with high anxiety sensitivity. This result directly backs up the idea that floating helps with inflammation, and by extension our immune systems.
The Future of Floatation Therapy Research
Dr. Flux, like all good scientists, ends his presentation by looking forward towards future research. The relationship between floatation therapy and immune health is still being explored. Future research aims to examine the impact of regular float sessions on immunoreactivity. As more studies are conducted, we’ll continue to increase our understanding of how floatation therapy supports immune health, particularly in individuals with anxiety or inflammatory conditions. Our Old Friends may not be replaced from the tanks, but the salty waters can help calm our immune system in this stress filled world.
Float Your Way to Better Health
Floating is a soothing experience that helps to reduce stress, alleviate anxiety, and (most importantly for this article) support your immune system. So why not treat yourself to a float session and experience the benefits firsthand? Not only will you be giving yourself a well-deserved break from the stressors of everyday life, but you’ll be helping your immune system stay strong and healthy.
The Science Of Floating And Mystical Experiences
The ideas of altered states of consciousness, mystical experiences, and voluntary self-isolation often bring with them images of shamans, spaced-out hippies, geometric art, and vibrant colors, as exaggerated stories and tales of these experiences get passed around. Along with these come equally exaggerated horror stories of being out of control, or seeing demons and messages from gods. Many people choose to stay clear of these potentially mind-bending scenarios that could lead them to having their worldview challenged in some unknown and uncontrollable way.
These misconceptions are reinforced through movies and TV shows. When float tanks make an appearance, they are often shown portraying people emerging from the tanks having a full-on-psychedelic-hallucination, or having gone mad from being alone for too long. They also tend to portray floaters having a spiritual experience in what looks like a drug-induced state, giving the often no-so-subtle implication that drugs are needed to achieve these states. Stories passed on through friends-of-friends often lead to misremembered details with an extra emphasis on the “wild” parts that then skew the view of the experience.
As many who have emerged from the tank can attest, it is often a much more dreamy, ethereal, and calming environment than is typically conveyed on screen. In the tranquility of the float tank, the mind chooses to slow down and relax instead of going into panic mode. While the environment of the tank can be foreign at the beginning, that feeling fades as the warm water becomes more welcoming, and the dark closed-off environment expands in the vastness, feeling more open than it appears. Although this is quite different from an automatic and uncontrollable plunge into a psychedelic-like state, the experience is still profound and impactful, and offers many benefits that do not require an intense experience to receive, such as anxiety reduction and body pain relief.
So, what exactly are mystical experiences and altered states of consciousness? And how do they relate to the floatation experience? With all the differing tales being told, defining these experiences can be very murky. We have documentation of early mystical experiences and traditions for at least as long as people began to settle and transition from a nomadic life. Many of these seem to stem from ancient religions, with mystic sects searching for methods to connect in a more spiritual way with gods and spirits.
Cultures from all corners of the earth have practiced ceremonies to achieve these states. These experiences have been described by philosopher and religious scholar Alan Watts as growing the understanding that all beings are connected as one with the world around them. This common theme of finding a unity between all life is well-documented across many who have had mystical experiences, both historically and in modern studies.
Another common theme of mystical experiences is the concept of ego-death: feeling your identity dissolve as a deep connection to all around you takes over. A mystical experience is often accompanied by many forms of altered states, such as feeling your sensations differently, having heightened perceptions, or having different thought patterns. It’s worth noting again that these altered states can be experienced in a variety of ways and through a variety of practices – a full blown psychedelic experience is not required!
In fact, people experience altered states everyday without the use of drugs, religious ceremonies, or even float tanks. At its most basic, an altered state is simply a different state of awareness than your normal day-to-day wakeful state. Yoga and other forms of exercise, for example, can alter your physiology, giving rise to heightened senses and a feeling of euphoria. Various meditation practices and breathing techniques can make one deeply relaxed and calmed, leading to a dreamy state of consciousness.
Finding the language to express and describe these otherworldly and dream-like experiences is often difficult, but that hasn’t stopped scientists from developing tests and scales to try to define these altered states. One such method, the Hood Mystical Experience Scale, was developed in the late 1970s and looks at 8 categories of mysticism (Ego Quality, Unifying Quality, Inner-subjective Quality, Temporal/Spatial Quality, Noetic Quality, Ineffability, Positive Effect, and Religious Quality). The scale was created by Dr. Ralph Hood, Jr. in an attempt to assess the frequency, intensity, and meaningfulness of mystical experiences, and it has been used in many areas of research since its development… including float tanks.
In Sweden, Dr. Anette Kjellgren has been conducting research on floatation and mystical experiences since 2008. Along with tests to determine the presence and strength of mystical experiences in the tank, Dr. Kjellgren and team looked at how other variables impacted and interacted with these altered states. One of their most notable findings was in the differences between people with different levels of sensitivity to external stimuli (as determined by the Highly Sensitive Personality Scale).
This study followed university students, with each completing two floats. The team was able to find that those with higher-sensitivity had a greater rate of both altered states of consciousness and mystical experiences. The highly-sensitive people rated their float experience higher on the Mystical Experience Scale in six out of 8 subcategories:
Ego Quality
Unifying Quality
Noetic Quality (an experience giving new understanding)
Inner-Subjective Quality
Religious Quality
Temporal/Spatial Quality
In other words, the more that people are sensitive to external stimuli in their day-to-day lives, the more likely they were to rate their experience floating as more mystical and “altered.” This study is possibly the first to find a correlation between personality traits and the relation to altered states and mystical experiences.
The definitive reason for the increased intensity of these experiences in the highly-sensitive group when floating needs further exploration. There is data suggesting it could be related to the healing that goes on inside of the tank, both physiologically and psychologically, leading to more inner growth and developments. Future studies will need to be done to explore this relationship more deeply and build on these results.
While not every float will lead to a mystical experience, there are still many other benefits to be had, even just in the realm of experiencing different states both in and out of the tank. Floatation practitioners often enter a relaxed state, feeling like we just woke up from a dream, and once welcomed back into the world, our senses burst to life as information comes flowing in. A new look on the world is common both during and after a float, as our mind quiets and looks for new ways to experience the environment through the lack of sensation. Even without a profound mystical experience, all of this can lead to new thoughts and ideas, giving a more peaceful view, and different outlook, on the world.
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Float Research Citations
Do Highly Sensitive Persons Experience More Nonordinary States Of Consciousness During Sensory Isolation?
Altered States of Consciousness and Mystical Experiences during Sensory Isolation in Flotation Tank: Is the Highly Sensitive Personality Variable of Importance?
Sensory Isolation in Flotation Tanks: Altered States of Consciousness and Effects on Well-Being
Altered consciousness in flotation-REST and chamber-REST: Experience of experimental pain and subjective stress
Other Citations
Classic Hallucinogens and Mystical Experiences: Phenomenology and Neural Correlates
A Channel for Magic: Ralph Hood’s Mysticism Scale and the Occult Roots of the Johns Hopkins Psychedelic Research Program
The God Mysticism Scale: a Brief Version
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11089-018-0856-7
Healing Altered States of Consciousness
Altered States of Consciousness
https://hraf.yale.edu/ehc/summaries/altered-states-of-consciousness
50 Years Of Commercial Floating
In 1954, a young medical doctor and neuroscientist, John C. Lilly, donned a breathing mask and took the first descending steps into a large, fresh-water tank designed to cut out as much light, noise, and general sensation as possible. From that first iteration, it would be 19 years before floatation therapy was offered generally to the public, thanks to the work of Dr. Lilly, along with Glenn and Lee Perry.
Glenn Perry, an engineer by trade, had his first float in 1972 at a workshop hosted by Lilly. An ordinarily extremely shy Glenn emerged from the tank in a new state of consciousness, one that “broke him from a spell,” allowing him to speak freely in front of a group of strangers (which would have terrified him under normal circumstances). After the week-long workshop, Glenn knew that he needed to have his own personal tank, so he set out to craft one. Along the way, he decided to pursue designing floatation tanks for others as well, thinking that if his own time floating could be so beneficial to him, that surely it would be useful for others as well.
Glenn immediately began designing new prototypes, experimenting with construction materials from plywood to fiberglass to cardboard. It was in one of these early tanks that Lee had her first float, as part of an isolation tank research project. After meeting and falling in love, the two set out to bring floating to as many people as possible. They began the Samadhi Tank Co., a name given to them by John Lilly. By 1973, all the basic features of current float tanks were in place: a shallow, temperature controlled pool of water, saturated with magnesium sulfate, that you would lay down in.
50 years ago, Glenn and Lee began hosting the first commercial float sessions out of their house, trying to get the word of floating out to anyone who would listen. Glenn worked on tank design while Lee worked with the floaters, learning how to introduce them to floating, how to prepare them for the float without any “pre-programming,” and how to welcome them back to the physical world after their session. With each floater, they expanded their knowledge and introduced more and more people to the buoyant practice. This was the beginning of the commercial float world.
1979 saw the first large scale commercial float center, a five tank center in Beverly Hills run by the Perrys. Their new space, and practice, was a hit, and floating began to captivate the citizens and celebrities of LA. All the while, more and more tanks were being sold and shipped across the globe and within a couple years, half a dozen more commercial float centers had opened up. Samadhi Tank Co. even started an ambitious 20 tank center in San Francisco that doubled as a sales floor for their manufacturing.
By the mid 80’s more and more people were reaching out to Glenn and Lee, curious about opening their own float centers. The Perrys began to share the knowledge that they learned from their own experiences, generously assisting and welcoming newcomers into the burgeoning industry. The Float Tank Association (FTA), a nonprofit dedicated to serving the float world, began in 1983 with Glenn and Lee Perry, as well as John Lilly, serving on the board. The FTA began to hold conferences and events centered around floatation, which included both the commercial industry, as well as the latest research being conducted.
The FTA, along with its sister organization, the International R.E.S.T. Investigators’ Society (IRIS), nurtured the float industry and helped it to break even further into the mainstream. Celebrities like Susan Sarandon, Robin Williams, and Michael Crichton were using the tanks and talking about them publicly. Sadly, with the general public not fully understanding the transmission of AIDS, float centers all over took a gigantic hit when the AIDS epidemic and media frenzy took hold. By the early 90s, most float centers around the United States had shut their doors, citing poor income and attendance due to HIV/AIDS as the primary reason.
Thankfully, this wasn’t the final chapter for commercial floating. Internationally, floating rebounded more quickly than it did in the US, and new float centers and tank manufacturers popped up in Italy, the UK, Sweden, and Germany. Still, through the 1990s and most of the early 2000s, the float industry remained incredibly small, with relatively little development or mass awareness.
It wasn’t until around 2009 that the industry began to pick up again. Media attention picked up, and Joe Rogan especially was very vocal about floating and its benefits on his popular podcast. Between 2010 and 2016, hundreds of new float centers had opened up in the United States alone, with Canada and Australia following similar trends. New floatation specific research labs were constructed, and an annual float conference started up with hundreds of attendees from around the globe.
Today, there is at least one float center in essentially every major city in an English speaking country. You can also find float centers in most countries throughout Europe, as well as various other hot spots across the globe. Top sports stars – like Steph Curry and Tom Brady – give high praise to the tank, encouraging other athletes of all levels to give it a try. References in popular culture have ranged from The Simpsons, to Big Bang Theory, to Stranger Things, to Cobra Kai, and beyond. Floating now has greater awareness and availability than has ever existed in its past.
Since those early days of being fully submerged in laboratory water tanks, and going on private retreats with John Lilly, the world of floating has gone through its trials and tribulations. Through it all, however, the industry has retained its core value: sharing floating with as many people as possible in the hope of changing the world, as Dr. Lilly put it.
The Benefits Of Doing Nothing
The concept of taking time away from obligations to relax and recoup is so foreign in our society that the idea is often met with confused looks; people live in a constant state of motion, often bouncing from task to task with no time to stop, breathe, and enjoy the moment. In society’s eyes, relaxing and doing nothing means wasting time… and wasting time means losing out on both money and opportunities.
The guilt that many of us feel for not being productive at all times is something we’re taught when we’re young, whether intentionally or not, and it gets carried with us as we age. This can lead to a cycle where we feel that we need to be going at all times, even when our mental and physical capacities are out of gas. We dig ourselves deeper and deeper into exhaustion trying to make the best use of our productivity each day, inevitably leading to symptoms of burnout, which are often ignored for as long as possible.
Learning to take a step back and let your mind and body recover is a valuable skill that can keep yourself afloat while battling the regular stresses of life. Taking time out to rest offers a whole slew of benefits: a boost in energy, increased creativity, time to process the new things you’ve learned, and much more. The problem, though, is that despite how simple resting is, not everyone actually knows how to do it properly.
Sitting down to scroll social media with TV on in the background might feel like we’re resting, but in actuality our brains are still fully engaged trying to concentrate and process all of the information we’re being confronted with. Our bodies can be relaxed, yet our minds stay on. Instead of staying active by scrolling and channel-hopping during the majority of our downtime, making time to consciously do as little as possible is surprisingly effective – by taking the time to slow your day down, you can let your brain get a reset, which in turn has been shown to reduce stress, boost creativity, and (almost counterintuitively) increase your overall productivity.
Many of these ideas and ideals are embraced by the slow living movement, and incorporating them into your own life can actually be accomplished quite easily. This includes things as simple as waking up a few minutes earlier so that you have time to sit and enjoy your tea or coffee, or taking a little extra time in the shower to enjoy the feeling of the water warming your body, rather than setting an alarm that gives you as little time as possible before you rush out the door. Likewise, going for an afternoon walk to get some fresh air, instead of relentlessly pushing through your to-do list, can refresh your entire system, leaving you rejuvenated when you return to work.
Being more mindful and taking longer to do tasks like this allow the mind a chance to wander and daydream. This wandering mind provides a break from the flow of the day, allowing a focus on bodily maintenance, as well as time working through ideas and problems without distractions. Letting the mind wander can help increase bodily-awareness, possibly helping us notice when we need breaks sooner as we are more in touch with our body's stress signals. These moments of idle wandering can even be the spark for a Eureka-level thought, as the brain is relaxed and can come up with unique ideas or solutions to problems without being stressed and forced to do so.
Finding the time to rest can be more difficult than it should be, particularly when it comes to escaping the grasp of technology and industry. The mental tether that attaches us to our phones is strong; all types of notifications could go off at any moment, taking us away from any chance of rest. Many of us live on-call (whether it be for work, family, or both) and it becomes increasingly difficult for us to be on silent mode. Those who live in cities or near industrial facilities hardly ever catch a break from the noise that seems to constantly hum from the surroundings. Freeways, railroads, and airports keep an ever flowing level of noise coming in at all times of day. This causes a deep level of stress as we can never fully relax, there is always something (sometimes subconsciously) bringing us back to the outside world.
Since so many people become used to never having the chance to rest, they go about their day never looking to make time for it, and they suffer the consequences. Resting won’t happen unless you make room for it, and starting by carving out even 30 minutes a day to rest can begin to do wonders for your stress levels and mental health (which is not to say that longer isn’t even better).
Unsurprisingly, floatation therapy is one of the best forms of rest that you can get. Removing all the chaotic, outside stimulus from the world gives us a truly unique and wonderful opportunity to let go both physically and mentally. The type of relaxation you get in the tank is unlike anything else: the sense of zero-gravity allows the muscles to release tension to the fullest, your joints can loosen and get a deep relaxation without any forces weighing them down, and your mind gets a break from the outside world and enters a calmed state as the body slows down and the parasympathetic nervous system takes over. Our heart rate slows down, and blood pressure is able to follow suit. Cortisol levels drop while dopamine levels increase. It is a stress-free environment where there is nothing keeping us on high alert.
Our mind is clear and free of clutter for once, allowing us to focus more intently on one thing at a time, instead of being flooded with thoughts like usual. The creative side of the brain opens up and many report being in a dream-like state, creating a rich opportunity for new ideas to flow. This boost of creative energy can even continue outside of the tank, with heightened senses when returning to the world as colors are more vivid, sounds of nature and music become more enjoyable, and delicious food tastes even better. We experience the world around us through different lenses, providing a chance to be fully and stress-free for a change.
By taking time to rest, we give our body and, more importantly, our mind a chance to recover and recalibrate. Stepping away from the outside world and the stress that comes with it can be difficult, but when we do make space in our lives for it, it allows us to return to our regular lives with renewed vigor and a better state of mind. Finding the time for a float can help us step away and do nothing… in the most productive way possible.
Tuning Into Your Inner Perception With Floating
Touch, sight, smell, hearing, and taste are what most people immediately think of when asked about the human senses. While these five major senses get the most attention, there are numerous, often-overlooked senses of the body that can add a great depth of information about what is going on inside of us: for example thermoception (sense of temperature), nociception (sense of pain), and equilibrioception (sense of balance). One of these lesser known senses is interoception, or the sense of the sensations inside your own body, like your heartbeat and your breathing. “It’s like an inner selfie,” Dr. Sahib Khalsa, floatation researcher, says in his 2016 Float Conference talk.
Interoception can be compared to other forms of bodily sensations such as exteroception, which deals with sensations outside the body through stimulation of the five major senses, and proprioception,which deals with your spatial awareness. Together, these senses work to help the brain determine the answer to “how do you feel?” Through knowing where you are spatially, what is in your immediate environment, as well as what is going on in your body, you can identify how you feel, and what you need to do to correct anything that feels off. When one of these pathways for sensing our inner and outer worlds isn’t functioning properly, it can become challenging to articulate our feelings and emotions.
Research has shown a link between how we regulate our emotions and our level of interoceptive awareness; a lower ability to recognize what is going on inside our bodies leads to a more difficult time working out our emotions, which in turn can make us more anxious. Interoception has been shown to be a basis for our emotional regulation - if you know what is going on inside, you’ll likely be more in tune with your emotional states.
There is an evolutionary explanation for this, the more connected our ancestors were to their bodies, the more quickly they could act to solve a problem. Were they hungry and needed food? Or cold and needed shelter? Being able to decipher these messages sent to the brain in a fast and efficient way allowed ancient humans a better chance at survival.
The disconnect between what the body is feeling and what the brain is perceiving can slow us down, causing us to have trouble acting on our internal feelings, often bringing out feelings of distress and anxiety. Not knowing how to describe what you’re feeling leads to confusion as we are lost in describing what we feel. Previous research has shown that floating can increase the awareness of inner bodily sensations, especially when in the tank, when a beating heart suddenly becomes more prominent in the otherwise empty environment. That feeling of body-connectivity can carry on outside of the tank as well. This has led to current research looking at how floating can be used to help people with anxiety who struggle to connect their inner sensations to the proper emotions.
Anxiety Sensitivity (AS) is described as the fear that one will experience anxiety symptoms and sensations, specifically ones arising from inside the body, and is an underlying contributor to many forms of chronic anxiety. AS can be a large factor in anxiety levels for someone in their day-to-day life, and can have a variety of effects ranging from impacting how their immune system is functioning to being a cause of random panic attacks. Is it possible that getting people with high AS and low interoception into a float tank could help them get more in tune with their bodies through the reduction of all the outside stimulation? Dr. Justin Feinstein and Dr. Sahib Khalsa set out to answer that in a 2017 study.
The study took individuals with high AS and other forms of anxiety and looked at how floating might be beneficial for interoception compared to another relaxing treatment (watching a nature documentary). After floating (compared to the documentary) participants reported lower states of anxiety, while also having reduced blood pressure and muscle tension. Participants who floated also had an increase of sensations from the cardiorespiratory system – their breath and heartbeat became easy to focus on with all other stimulation swept away. Interestingly, participants found it easier to detect their heartbeat all throughout their body, including areas on the face, head, and on the back.The ability to regulate their focus on internal bodily sensations was also increased. The findings indicated that floating helped these participants see a reduction of general anxiety as well as increased interoception, specifically through the heartbeat and the breath.
Many anxiety disorders stem from a disconnect between the mind and body, lowering levels of interoception. This disconnect can cause other forms of anxiety, as emotions can feel out of sync, leading to internal confusion. Having a higher interception allows for someone to be more attentive to their emotions, as they can process internal stimulation quicker and more accurately gauge how they are feeling. While more work needs to be done, the results are promising, and early studies show that floating could be beneficial to increasing interoception, specifically within highly anxious individuals. There appears to be a strong connection between floating and heightened recognition of the heartbeat and breathing, making you more in tune with your body, and fostering a better understanding of the connection between your physical and mental states.
Floating and Yoga - An Enlightening Combination
The idea of yoga in the west often begins and ends with pictures of various movements you do in a crammed studio surrounded by other sweaty people. In reality, this is but one sliver of what yoga truly is. Rather than a physical workout that you do, yoga is more of a way of life that you pursue. Is it an internal practice involving the mind and body, working towards alignment.
“The Yoga Sutras Of Patanjali”, one of the foundational texts of classical yoga written roughly 2000 years ago, describes eight limbs of yoga, each leading you on the path to enlightenment. The eight limbs are:
1. Yama – attitude towards the environment
2. Niyama – attitude towards oneself
3. Asana – practice of body movements
4. Pranayama – practice of breathing exercises
5. Pratyahara – restraining of the senses
6. Dharana – concentration on a single point
7. Dhyana – being fully engaged and concentrated in the meditation practice
8. Samadhi – enlightenment
It can be seen that the physical movements often associated with yoga (asanas) are just a small part of a larger practice: one that includes breathwork, mental concentration, looking inward, evaluating morals, and even practicing self-love. Depending on your school of thought, the limbs are either completed in order, or worked on simultaneously. Many in the west find their introduction to yoga through asana practice in a studio and then they might begin exploring the rest of their practice from there, if ever.
Looking at the eight limbs, it’s easy to see how many of them can be adapted for practice in the float tank, a seemingly perfect environment to engage with the yogic exercises. Having a place where you are left with nothing but your own mind and body creates a wonderful space to work on yourself. “Yoga is about stilling the fluctuations of our consciousness and finding the union of the body, mind, breath and the spirit in the present moment,” says yoga teacher, and floater, Martina Phillips. For her, floating is about “the feeling of non-existence and effortlessness.” She says the two practices can work together, and that with a correct practice, that same effortlessness she feels from floating can be felt from yoga.
Niyama, pranayama, and pratyahara stand out as particularly easy practices to work on while floating: looking inwards at yourself, breathing exercises, and resisting the senses. Looking inward and breathing exercises are simple forms of meditation, both of which people often already naturally do while floating.
And as far as resisting the senses goes, the tank is almost a cheat-code: there is simply nothing to resist. Once acclimated to the salty solution, your body soon begins to feel like a puddle, becoming one with the water. There are no sounds or lights to distract you, and before you know it all sensation has been reduced. Taking a deeper look, it becomes clear how all of the 8 limbs can be worked into the practice of floating.
Starting with simple mediations can lead easily into the practices of dharana and dhyana (concentration on a single point and being fully engaged and concentrated in the meditation practice). Floating is often described as “meditation with training wheels,” and we hear many people talk about how they start floats with meditation or breathwork. Whether these people know it or not, they are using the tank to practice yoga.
And as for Yama, or attitude towards your environment? With the increased boost of dopamine that can accompany a float, a happier outlook on the world can be easier to cultivate, giving a way to practice yamas after a float, looking at the world with more peaceful eyes.
Working asanas into floating may seem a bit more challenging; how can you do yoga poses in the tank? The answer is to adapt the poses in a way that can work with the buoyant saltwater. This means specifically focusing on poses that can easily be done in the supine position.
DISCLAIMER: We are not medical professionals, nor yoga teachers. All information regarding asanas/stretching in the tank has been gathered through conversations with yoga teachers. You should always listen to how your body feels when stretching, and consult with a doctor or physical therapist with any concerns before trying yoga in the float tank.
While floating in water may seem like it would hinder the asana practice, the buoyancy the tank provides can actually be used as a tool. All of the yoga teachers we spoke with mentioned the benefits of an asana practice in the tank: being suspended in water lets the spine stretch and the back muscles relax. This loosening of the body can help make poses feel easier to get into, allowing for deeper stretches than are typically possible out of the tank.
There is also the added freedom of movement without the pull of gravity, allowing the body to move and stretch in different ways. Another benefit of asana in the tank, as Kim Hannan, float center owner and yoga teacher points out, is how personal the practice in the tank becomes – there is no one else around you to compare your practice to. Alone in the darkness, she finds she can “feel a greater connection to the sensations in the body.” By having this greater connection, the need for a mirror in a yoga studio is lost, she can sink into poses by “not just wondering if my alignment ‘looks right’ - but does it ‘feel right’?”
For poses in the tank, most of the teachers mentioned “wiggling around” in the tank at the start of the float to loosen the body, then stretching out in every direction before falling still. Supine twists, like with hands above the head and moving hands and feet in the same direction, and creating a banana with your body (as Martina described), were common tank-poses that the yoga teachers mentioned.
Photo courtesy of Art of the Float (artofthefloat.com)
The “Extended Hand-to-Big-Toe” pose can become easier in the tank, as you are not relying on the back strength it takes to perform the pose standing. Likewise, “Reclining Tree” poses are nice to do in the tank to open-up the hips and align the spine. The “Reclining Cobbler” and “Reclining Lotus” poses were also brought up, as the floating feeling in the tank lets these deep and challenging poses become more accessible.
Photo courtesy of Art of the Float (artofthefloat.com)
These are not the only poses to practice in the tank, and even just light movements tend to be beneficial to getting the body relaxed. Light stretching before and after the float also offers value. Beforehand, it gets the body relaxed, and afterwards it can help wake the body back up and get ready to move. Once again, listen to your body and never push your limits while stretching in the tank. The asana practice should be light, and neither intense nor strenuous when you’re floating.
Finally, the achievement of Samadhi (enlightenment) is not something that can be done in a float or two. It’s certainly not impossible for one to become “enlightened” in the tank, but it is more likely the act of floating will aid in that journey through the integration of the other 7 limbs, allowing a unique environment to work deeply with the various yoga exercises.
The idea of floating being so closely tied with the 8 limbs of yoga has led to some people calling floating the unofficial “9th Limb”: Kim Hannan even mentions this in her 2018 blog post. She discusses how floating is the culmination of the 8 limbs and that in the tank all can be worked on together. Floating provides a space to take time for only yourself, making it a great place to integrate the practices of yoga.
It is worth noting that every float practice is unique, and that there are no “right” ways to float – on its own, it is a wonderful experience with many benefits. For some, the tank can be an extension of their yoga practice, and for others it is a space to simply de-stress and relax. Regardless, the important thing for any floating practice is to engage in self-care and actually book yourself in for a session.
Renaissance of Float Research
Similar to many float enthusiasts, if you ask us what floating is good for, our first answer is often, “What is it not good for?” Having witnessed floating help so many people, it’s easy to think of it as a panacea for all sorts of ailments and afflictions. However, despite decades of published research, some of those in the medical field still look at floating with a side-eye, skeptical of the claims made by floaters.
From curing insomnia to heightening your athletic abilities, there are personal stories from all over the globe of the benefits of floating. Unfortunately, large scale clinical trials are very expensive and time consuming, and most of these claims either receive funding for small scale studies, or aren’t able to be pursued at all with any kind of rigor.
As floating grows in prominence and popularity, the demand for this research has been getting stronger and stronger, and there are many researchers both in the US and internationally who are studying the effects of floatation therapy. The Float Lab at the Laureate Institute of Brain Research (LIBR) is one of the best funded float labs in the world, and over the last decade it has been working to produce large, well-funded studies on floating as a treatment for a range of conditions.
More recently, they’re being joined by a new non-profit, The Float Research Collective (FRC). The FRC was created by Dr. Justin Feinstein, who previously helped to found and head the float laboratory at LIBR. With the Float Research Collective, Dr. Feinstein wants to do two things: create a new, dedicated float research lab and cultivate a network of float centers who can contribute data from their own tanks. Through this, the FRC aims to combine classical lab research with a huge collaboration of citizen science to advance our understanding of floatation.
Both organizations are attempting new, robust studies with hopes of creating a renaissance of float research. If you’re curious about any of the previous, peer-reviewed studies on floatation, the FRC has a public list available. Even just in the past several years there have been some very large strides forward in research of floating to help treat anxiety (one of the most prevalent mental disorders) and anorexia (the deadliest mental disorder).
In two 2018 articles, Dr. Feinstein showed how promising floating can be as a treatment for reducing anxiety. In a randomized study, participants across the board showed a decrease in anxiety and stress and an increase in relaxation and serenity. You can watch Dr. Feinstein report on the results of the studies at the 2019 Float Conference, or read the articles themselves in Biological Psychiatry and PLOSone.
More recently, Dr. Sahib Khalsa, who now leads the float lab at LIBR, started delving into how floating can help those with anorexia nervosa and bulimia. After running a successful safety study (to make sure participants wouldn’t have any adverse effects from the tanks – which they did not) the roadwork was set for a clinical study. The clinical trial was a success: there appeared to be a reduction in anxiety as well in body-image dissatisfaction, meaning they had a more positive perception of their body image. Read the full research article here, and listen to Dr. Khalsa present on the results during the 2021 Float Conference.
The success of this initial trial allowed for a follow up, full-scale randomized efficacy study. By taking a group with severe anorexia nervosa, a direct comparison was done with floating versus the usual personalized treatment plan done as a treatment at LIBR. The two treatments were compared over the course of 8 sessions, and through multiple follow-ups over the course of a year afterwards.
While we’ll have to wait a little bit for the results of the long-term follow-up to be published, we did get a preview of the results at the 2022 Float Conference this August. The initial results show that the float group saw a greater reduction in both body image dissatisfaction and in anxiety. The effect of change was small in body image dissatisfaction, but still significant with a 4.9% reduction in the float group, while the anxiety effect was large with nearly a 20% reduction in anxiety in the float group, compared to only a 0.2% reduction in the usual care group.
These studies and their effect sizes are wonderful to see, but there is still a lot to be done with float research. Building a database of clinical studies to begin exploring these and other general claims for floating are the big next steps. At that point, the studies can begin getting more into the specifics of how and why floating is helping people. If general anxiety can be reduced from floating, does that mean that anxiety that arises from other specific conditions also be treated through floating?
Hard scientific findings are needed to further open the door for floatation treatments becoming mainstream, and the work of Dr. Feinstein and Dr. Khalsa, along with many other float researchers, is important for starting to illuminate the benefits. Further studies can now be done to delve deeper into the results, and to help establish floatation therapy as a viable, all-natural medical treatment. As more work stems from these studies, we look forward to floating being even more validated in the medical community, and to it becoming a more widely recognized and recommended treatment for a variety of afflictions.
Floating...The Perfect Travel Companion
The feeling of getting off a long plane ride, worn out from the traveling you’ve already done, can sometimes stifle the excitement for the trip ahead. For especially long or arduous journeys, entire days can be lost or wasted trying to deal with jet lag and catch up on sleep. The drowsiness and exhaustion can certainly impact how you engage with new environments, and it can lead to seeing the world as duller and less interesting.
It can feel like you need a reset, much like when a computer gets overworked – simply rebooting it can fix a lot of problems, and the same is true for us. Starting your travels with a float can be just the reset you need, and it can help in a big way with alleviating symptoms of jet lag. It also enhances your senses, letting you take in your new surroundings in a fresh and exciting way.
One of the most enticing benefits that a float tank can provide to someone traveling is the reduced stress one feels after a session. For many people, traveling can be a less-than-ideal situation; it often involves long days, uncomfortable transportation, overstimulation, and an ever-present fear that something will go wrong. We have a romantic vision of vacations as a relaxing respite from our normal lives, but the reality is that they're often highly stressful experiences.
Fortunately, floating has been shown to specifically alleviate stress and anxiety, and it’s no wonder that this is one of the most commonly cited reasons that people come in to float. By slowing down the production of cortisol (one of our stress hormones), floating helps to regulate our overall stress levels. Hopping into a tank when you arrive at a new destination can help strip away that travel stress, and prevent it from negatively impacting the first days of your trip.
Even just an hour float session can rejuvenate your system, giving you an energy recharge for your upcoming explorations. The effects of floating can last multiple days, even up to a week, allowing you to feel ready to go for your whole adventure. Surplus energy is always welcome while traveling, during which so often the goal is to go-go-go and see as much as possible. This kind of non-stop pace gets tiring very quickly, and the exhaustion associated with travel is a big reason some people don’t take any long trips at all. However, by starting the journey with a float and letting your body relax, exploring immediately becomes less draining and more exhilarating.
Fighting off the effects of jet lag is a tremendous boon for any travels, but that’s not the only way floating can improve travels – and arguably it’s not even the coolest benefit. Post-float, there is a unique opportunity to experience the world in a different headspace. Removing all stimuli allows the brain to rest and readjust, which changes how we perceive the world once we re-engage with it.
After floating, lights are more vibrant, sounds have a new tone to them, and food tastes better. These heightened senses can make any plans you have that much more enjoyable. New and exciting restaurants become even more delicious, art galleries grow in the way they provoke thoughts, and landscapes increase in intensity as the colors saturate.
Additionally, at the same time that your cortisol levels are dropping, your production of dopamine is increasing, providing a naturally better mood. Being in this headspace can have a tremendous influence on all of your experiences: feeling fresh, relaxed, ready to conquer the new adventures that lie ahead of you. Floating can also increase the quantity and quality of your sleep, helping to push past that weird feeling of sleeping on an unfamiliar bed that makes it more difficult for many of us to sleep well away from home.
Floatation therapy has benefits that can help improve our quality of life in so many areas, and that includes travel. The good news is that it’s easier than ever to find a good place to float – in the past decade float centers have been opening at a swift pace in cities all across the globe. Starting a trip with a float could just be the secret to getting the absolute most our of the rest of your vacation – and it’s not the worst way to unwind and process your experiences upon your return.
Floating and Concussions
The search for pain relief can drive people in many unexpected, and sometimes downright odd, directions – float tanks among them. With the high concentration of Epsom salt, the tank can fully support the body without any areas of pressure on your back. This alone has been shown to help with inflammation reduction, faster recovery times, and general pain management, which helps explain why many big-name athletes and sports teams (like Steph Curry, Tom Brady, the Seahawks, the Dodgers, the Cubs, and many more) incorporate floating into their recovery programs.
Beyond physical recovery, floating has also been shown to have many positive mental effects, such as reducing anxiety and depression, while increasing energy levels and serenity. These particular benefits have been backed by scientific research, but since floating is still a largely under-researched field, many of the stories that claim benefits from floating haven’t been explored through official studies. There are, however, some benefits that are being explored through smaller scale research programs and case studies that, while not official, show promise and can help lead to new findings and larger scale studies in the future.
One of these areas of exploration is that of traumatic brain injuries (TBIs), and specifically concussions. Concussions can have a variety of symptoms: a foggy mind, forgetfulness, trouble concentrating, increased sensitivity to external stimulation, as well as many others.
The positive impact of floating on TBIs, and especially on concussions, is of great interest to me, and is one of the main reasons I pursued a job in this industry. I suffered multiple concussions over my life, and during my twenties the long-term effects to my brain were beginning to get more intense. From my first concussion at age 5, to the most recent at age 20, the symptoms began to compound: more brain fog, more forgetfulness, an overall feeling of being oblivious to my surroundings… the list goes on.
Possibly the worst problem for many people with concussions is that, as a result of dealing with these symptoms for so long, they don’t realize that anything is wrong, and so never seek treatment. It wasn’t until I began floating, and seeing improvements in so many areas of my life, that I began to recognize just how much my quality of life had been impacted by the 7 concussions I received over roughly 15 years.
With consistent floating, my symptoms calm down: my mood is better, I’m not as forgetful, and I feel more mindful. Each moment doesn’t pass so fast. However, when I float less often, my issues flare up again. Put simply, my quality of life has improved tremendously, and I credit that to floating.
There are many other anecdotal stories out there of floating being helpful for traumatic brain injuries. One customer shared his story of how floating helped with his own TBI. Prior to floating, he found he needed more rest than what his (often restless) sleep at night could provide to maintain his mental clarity. Naps added some relief, but further messed up the already discombobulated sleep cycle he was dealing with. He said that, “from day one, [floating] has been really helpful as a way of resting my brain and letting it heal.” He mentioned how, even if he falls asleep in the tank, his sleep at night is not interrupted. Instead, he finds it much easier to slip into a restful sleep on days where he’s rested in the float tank, and he, like myself and many others, feels that floating has helped to alleviate many of the negative symptoms of his TBI.
A few more rigorous case studies on the benefits of floating for those who have suffered a TBI have been conducted by Dr. David Berv out of Richmond, VA. In one case study done by Dr. Berv, a subject with long term effects from their TBI (10 years) began to see improvements mentally after only a 3-month float program. Energy and motivation levels increased, while feelings of depression saw a decrease. This was similar to my own timeline of improvement after I began to float regularly.
Another of Dr. Berv’s TBI case-studies saw similar results. There were improvements in fatigue and brain fog, and decreased headaches, confusion, and sleep disturbances. Both of these case studies came to the same conclusion: floating is a promising tool for improving emotional, cognitive, and behavioral functioning after suffering a TBI, even years after the injury initially took place.
As floating grows more popular, stories like these continue to emerge, and while some of these benefits are spread through word of mouth (and occasional blog posts) to other floaters, with luck eventually they will reach a scientist curious enough to investigate. In the future, we will hopefully see funded studies specifically on the benefits floating can provide to people suffering from symptoms of their brain injuries. This could lead to a world where those with head trauma can find relief, apart from prescribed medication. Having played football for so long, I wonder how we can assist those who have suffered even more concussions than I did in my youth – floating could be an answer, but more research is needed.
Regardless, hearing all these wonderful stories of recovery makes me excited. So little is known about the brain, and new discoveries can come from the most unexpected of places – like an oversized, salt-saturated, neutral-temperature bathtub.
Some Things Never Change
Although the environment for floating is carefully constructed and controlled, it doesn’t stop every float being its own unique experience. This is true, not only from person to person, but also from float to float. The float tank is a neutral environment, but every individual brings in their own unique state of mind and body. It’s one of the reasons we always recommend playing around with different times of day (and days of the week) when you’re starting to float, so that you can find what you enjoy most consistently for your own practice.
What you’ve been thinking about, how much you’ve exercised recently, how sleepy you are, and even how long it’s been since your last visit can all impact the nature of your experience. With that said, there are a few surprising things that have way LESS impact on your float experience than you might think. These include the temperature and weather outside, the style of tank that you use, and even what your intentions and expectations are going into your session.
Temperature and Weather
Many people who haven’t floated yet put float tanks into roughly the same category as hot tubs, or a nice warm bath. After all, the basic experience seems pretty closely related: lounging in heated water for rest and relaxation. However, the neutrality of the temperature in a float tank makes for a very different experience than hot tubs, baths, or even a heated pool.
For starters, floating feels the same regardless of whether it's sweltering outside or freezing. Your core temperature may be different when you first come in, but after a shower and just a few minutes in the tank, your body naturally equalizes back towards your natural, default temperature. This means that on cold days, the float tank can really help by raising your core temperature and increasing your circulation. On hot days, though, floating actually helps your body to stay cool, which in turn lends a hand with focus and energy levels.
Breaking the mental connection between float tanks and hot tubs isn’t intuitive for a lot of people who haven’t yet tried floating, and we see this reflected in our schedule over the course of a year. When the weather gets hot, we see far more regulars than new-comers, as a lot of first-time floaters assume that floating in warm water when it’s already hot outside is going to be uncomfortable. They don’t understand yet that although the water is heated, it’s only warmed to skin-receptor neutral: the level at which your temperature receptors stop sending any signals – hot or cold – to your brain.
Amusingly, one of the most significant ways the outside temperature affects your floats is simply in the number of layers you need to take off and put on for your session. Especially when you have that cozy, post-float glow, it can be hard to imagine how you could have possibly needed so many clothes just to protect you from the elements on a cold day (at least, until you head back outside). We have a lot of guests who get their base layer on, and don’t don the rest of their sweaters, jackets, and boots until just before they leave the lobby.
Style of Float Tank
Let’s start out by saying that float tank manufacturers have to pay attention to a lot of little details to make sure that they provide safe, high-quality float experiences. These include things like aesthetics (such as contours, colors, and lighting) or ease of entry and exit (with handholds and slip proofing). Height, of course, also affects getting into and out of the tank, and the width and length of the tank determine how much you can stretch out inside.
However, once you’re actually in our center floating in one of our tanks, and you’ve found a comfortable position where you don’t need to move – the float tank could magically transform into a completely different shape and you wouldn't be able to tell that anything had changed at all. The air and saltwater immediately next to your body form a bubble that matches your own external temperature almost perfectly, and as long as the float tank itself is well-maintained and calibrated, you can achieve that feeling of floating, weightless, in wide-open space regardless of what style of tank your physical body is actually occupying at the moment.
Intentions and Expectations
The inventor of the float tank, Dr. John C. Lilly, was a huge proponent of going into your floats with no specific expectations. This is because the float tank is very good at giving your body and mind what they need, and this is often different from what you think you want.
Perhaps you have something stressful on your mind that you want to work through in the comfortable, distraction-free environment of a float tank… and then almost as soon as you enter the tank you go into a deep, sleepy state of theta brainwaves. When you wake up at the end of your session, you realize that you didn’t spend any time at all thinking through things like you intended. However, it’s likely that what you really needed was some physical and mental rest and, when you allowed your body a little room to check in on itself, that’s exactly what it gave you.
We had one customer come in because his doctor had recommended floatation therapy to help with an injured shoulder. He came out of his session talking about the colorful lights he saw, his reflections on his job and relationships, and how alive his senses felt. When we asked about his shoulder, he seemed almost surprised, raised up his arms a bit, and said, “Oh yeah – I forgot all about it. It feels great!”
As with so many things that are good for us, humans are excellent at finding small reasons to put off going in for a much-needed float. “It’s too hot outside,” or, “My favorite tank is booked up for the evening,” or, “I’m too tired,” or, “My brain is too busy.” Once you’re actually in the salt water, comfortable and buoyed, all of those objections fade into the distant background, and you’re able to rest, recover, and process in whatever way comes naturally at the moment. The particulars of an individual float are always uncertain, but the benefits from a regular float practice are consistent and irrefutable.
Finding Yourself In Quiet Darkness
“The tank is a general-purpose tool, not a design for something in particular. It is nothing and it is a powerful instrument for change. It is an environment for learning about oneself, in whatever way one wishes. It does not tell us what to do… we trust in the inherent capacity of the individual to discover what is best for themselves.”
Glenn and Lee Perry, Floating in Quiet Darkness
(manufacturers of the first commercial float tanks)
“Who are you? ”
Lewis Carroll, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland
(asked by the Caterpillar)
How does anyone really know who they are? This question has been asked and answered in countless ways, in countless languages and mediums, throughout human history. Despite access to all of the wisdom that humans have gathered through millenia, we’re seemingly no closer to any kind of universal answer.
We have, however, developed various strategies for exploring the question in useful ways, perhaps getting us closer to at least a temporary and personal answer. All of us are always changing and growing, and who we are is, as such, a moving target. It changes, not only over long stretches of time, but even in the short term based on our moods or the company we keep.
We are pack animals, and as a result we feel the need to fit in with the people we’re surrounded by: our families, our friends, our co-workers, and our society at large. Living in a time where we are surrounded by so much media,, we can add to our list of influences the myriad personalities whose thoughts, opinions, and fashion we absorb and adopt, but who we’re unlikely to have ever interacted with in-person. We have an endless supply of voices outside of us telling us which sorts of behaviors are acceptable, which are unacceptable, and which we simply don’t talk about in decent company.
In the end, however, we are individuals. We each have our own unique set of genetics and experiences, which influence our beliefs and actions. We each have our own freak flag, which we should be allowed and encouraged to fly. In art, this is often spoken of in terms of authenticity, or as finding your own “voice” or “style.” If you don’t happen to call yourself an artist (and for that matter, even if you do) you might not be confronted with very consistent encouragement to look past the consensus of the crowds and to hone the parts of you and the contributions that are uniquely yours.
If you turn to the outside world to find out who you are, it will tell you what it wants you to be. In order to truly learn more about yourself, you need to direct your attention inward, and spend time asking yourself the difficult questions. Unfortunately, this isn’t the easiest thing to prioritize when our attention is besieged constantly by obligations, commitments, movies, games, meals, music, articles, and conversations. We can wake up in the morning, go to bed at night, and during all of the time in between manage to not spend any time reflecting on all the things that we’ve seen and experienced.
It’s important to set aside time for synthesizing the information we’re confronted with every day – to figure out how our new discoveries intersect with our current knowledge and beliefs. Otherwise, we aren’t giving ourselves the space that’s needed to develop our own opinions. When we’re confronted with new challenges, it’s so easy to look up someone else’s answers (or, more often, a collection of answers from experts in whatever field you desire) that we often don’t even bother to think through problems on our own: to figure out what our thoughts and strategies are.
This contemplation is what allows us to make conscious decisions, and to put intention behind both our desires and our actions. It’s one of the many reasons that meditation, mindfulness, and floatation are so beneficial as regular practices. They give us space to think about what we’ve been reading and watching, about how we’ve been acting, about how others behave towards us – about anything that comes to mind, really. As simple as this sounds, if we don’t actively make space for rumination we aren’t likely to engage in it; the world is simply too good at filling up our waking hours with its numerous requirements and distractions.
Lee Perry, one of the founders of Samadhi Tank Co., was fond of saying, “If you don’t have time to float for an hour, you should float for two.” This is a recognition of the fact that our thoughts and actions are so readily dictated by the demands of the world around us. Even when we are feeling overwhelmed (and perhaps even especially then), it is crucial to prioritize and protect time that we set aside for ourselves.
In their 2021 book, Floating in Quiet Darkness (which we reference and honor in the title of this blog), Lee Perry and her partner Glenn share personal and professional stories from a lifetime spent in the float industry. If you’re looking for inspiration to develop your own routine of self-reflection and self-care, you couldn’t find more inspirational and compassionate role models. Feel free to ask us about them, or their work, next time you come in to float. And of course, if you feel too busy to come in for an appointment right now, perhaps you should book yourself in for a few.
Creative Notion From The Silent Ocean
Creativity and convergence
If humanity defines itself by anything, it is by our capacities to think critically and to adapt through our creative abilities. Although the critical thinking part gets a lot of attention, creativity is at the core of our being and is one of the main driving forces of productivity.
Unfortunately, society values this productive output so much that it’s often willing to sacrifice our health and sanity in the short term to get there. This can cause a perverse cycle where our health suffers, so our creative force takes a serious dip, and our productivity is brought along as an unwilling and unwitting passenger. The intimate relationship between self-care, creativity, and productivity is both fascinating and often frustratingly elusive to balance in our lives.
Sometimes we "just get it" and everything seems to flow effortlessly from our intentions, through our actions, into being. However, when our creative fuel is running low our outlook can suddenly change, and lots of the creative tasks that would normally come easily to us end up being difficult to manage. This can manifest itself in things like writer’s block, listlessness, or even chronically cleaning the same spot in your kitchen over and over again in the hopes that you’ll somehow metaphorically wipe away your current mental obstacles.
(co)Producing the flow state
Let's talk brainwaves. Our brains create very small but measurable electrical activity that scientists measure in Hertz (Hz), which is defined as one cycle per second. These frequencies have shown themselves to be a reliable indicator to our state of consciousness. In our most common waking state, we produce Beta brainwaves, associated with data processing and active consciousness. In our main sleeping state we produce Delta brainwaves, associated with deep, dreamless sleep.
As we settle down into a resting state, we slowly melt down through the different states from active Beta, through states known as Alpha and Theta, and eventually on to the slow Delta brainwaves. The Theta state (4Hz-7Hz) is where, creatively, a lot of the really interesting stuff happens, but we aren’t able to get there while our attention is alert and consciously focused.
Usually our brains are producing one dominant frequency, which generally determines our experience at that present time. However, our brains are complex enough that we rarely (if ever) have just a single type of brainwave at a time. Even the distinction between precise brainwave frequencies is blurry, and there are lots of in-between states and combinations that signify various mental states.
One of the most interesting relationships is where the Alpha and Theta states intersect (around 8Hz). This level of activity is associated with the flow state (named and studied by Dr. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi) where creative ideas meet effortless implementation. When we relax enough, it becomes much easier to access this state, where we’re more easily able to gain access to novel insights through the subconscious mind. Our fascination with this realm of thought is not new, and one of the forefathers of modern psychology Carl Jung spent most of his career being highly interested in breaking down the dreamy symbolism that is created in these states, and the rich history of those symbols throughout various cultures across the world.
This is also where your brain spends a lot of time in the float tanks. That between-waking-and-sleeping, half-dreamy state that we get briefly every night as we fall asleep is prolonged in the float tank, and loosely associated thoughts come together, often feeling sublime and inspirational. Symbolically meaningful images and thoughts float to the surface, mirroring our own bodies in the dark quietude of the float tank.
For more in-depth information on the history of brainwave frequencies, including modern research showing how they’re affected by floating, be sure to check out our blog post on the Theta State.
Making dreams a reality
There is a saying that if you don’t have time to meditate for an hour, you should probably meditate for two. We have a culture that encourages not only hard work and productivity, but also near-constant activity and distraction. This is not a recipe for mental well-being, and the productive work that is required of us is made that much harder when we’re stressed out and exhausted. Ultimately, this results in less creative, less efficient, and less enjoyable work time, and the effects can quickly spread into our personal time as well.
Spending time by yourself, in a relaxed mental state and free from distractions, is one of the most consistent ways to bring the puzzle pieces of self-care, labor, and creativity together. Any regular floater has definitely had the experience of receiving answers, solutions, and ideas for difficult problems we’re facing while laying still in the saltwater – often without trying.
Almost paradoxically, it’s precisely this "not trying" part that is so important for creative breakthroughs. It’s also the part that our logical mind has the most difficulty trying to understand and internalize – how do we get things done by not doing anything? This loop converges in the act of resting: freeing up our mental processing load, bringing our brainwaves into a slower, regenerative state, and allowing our bodies and minds to go from actively interacting to processing and recovering.
Check out our blog post on floating for creativity for more information and links to studies on using floatation therapy to study everything from problem solving to improvisational jazz.
From outlook to insight
Although we might think of it as something passive, we can actually get better at hovering in and maintaining that in-between state of consciousness, whether you call it Theta, flow, or something even more simple like day-dreaming. When we’re floating, we can actively cultivate the theta state, essentially hacking into our own creative mind through ‘non-doing.’
Although some people go into a float with a clear intention of what they'd like to work on, others simply allow themselves to be surprised when the answer to a problem (that might not have even been front of mind) emerges from the subconscious. Somehow, allowing our bodies to get completely comfortable and melt away gives our minds the space they need to ruminate on our ideas, casually processing them and often leading (almost magically) to these spontaneous “Aha!” moments.
The tank is an amazing tool, which gives us easier access to these parts of ourselves that we so rarely give ourselves the space or time to achieve in our daily lives. Regularly allowing for these moments of time where we have no obligations, not even to fight gravity, can be truly life changing. To achieve better insight, it actually helps to focus your attention away from the outside world, literally spending more time looking inwards.
If you're overworked, and underwhelmed with the progress on your goals, self-care in general (and floating specifically) could be the key to breaking out of the destructive cycle of modern life. Creativity and human insight will always be of the utmost importance to making progress in life, and we should all give ourselves the down-time that we need to let them thrive.
Improve Thyself: Betterment by Buoyancy
Imagine yourself - who are you and where are you REALLY going?
What do you truly know about yourself?
You've found your parking spot, stop to take a few conscious breaths after turning off your car, and step out. You take the short walk to our float center, and as you open the door you're greeted by our welcoming staff and feel instantly relaxed and at home. You sit down in a comfortable chair, wait for your room to be ready, and ponder on how floating has helped you connect with yourself.
As you reflect on the familiar sensation of letting go into your private sea, the question naturally arises: what else can floating help with?
Many people float to find their baseline - whether that be for general relaxation, "me" time (away from kids, partners, work, friends and family), basic physical recovery, or even just paying off some sleep debt. For others, though, floating as a practice has more of a pointed goal to it – something specific that you’re looking to achieve, whether it be physical, emotional, intellectual, or spiritual. Since one of the most fascinating things about floating is how versatile it can be, and how it appeals to people in so many different walks of life, we wanted to run through some different ways floating is used for self-improvement.
Physical
In the physical realm, goals could be performance oriented: improving running times, training for an event or marathon, or improving precision skills required for something like disc golf. Several NFL, NBA, and MLB teams use floating as part of an action/recovery plan, along with other organizations such as the Australian Institute of Sport and the UFC Performance Institute Shanghai.
There have been a host of studies on the effectiveness of floating for this kind of training, from tennis players pushing past skill plateaus, to improved marksmanship in archery and rifle shooting, to shortened recovery times and less muscle soreness for heavy physical training. Incorporating floating into your training routine can help with injury prevention both before and during an event, and has even been shown to speed up reaction time.
Improving as an athlete, or in your physical performance, is only one of many acute goals that regular floaters come in for. Other areas for development in conjunction with floating include:
Spinal decompression
Relief from arthritis and fibromyalgia
Stretching (something called "Floga")
Swifter recovery from surgery/injuries
Aiding in body work and physical therapy
Reducing high blood pressure
Improving quality of sleep
Emotional
Another interesting way that people use floating for self-improvement is related to emotions, and emotional regulation. Many people find the solitude of the float tank provides a perfect space for emotional healing, as it can help turn off the ordinary chatter and running narratives that our mind is always creating.
Deep relaxation in the float tank has a way of lending perspective on ourselves, or a particular relationship, as we are able to fully immerse and reflect. Whether it’s examining habits in your life that you want to adjust, or processing interactions with others that you wish were different, having a perfectly comfortable environment with no distractions is a tremendous tool.
Floaters have even referred to their time in a float tank as a salty therapy session, without the therapist. Here are just a few examples of emotional work that people do while floating:
Working through past issues and traumas
Coming to terms with a breakup or divorce
Finding balance and insight with work relationships
Floating before or after intentional communication with a significant other
Floating while pregnant to connect with the baby
Intellectual
Some people use floating to help learn new skills or solve difficult problems. Used before studying, floating can calm your nerves and help you to stay focused and attentive to the subject at hand. Used after you’ve absorbed a lot of information (like when you’re cramming for finals) is the perfect way to cement and internalize everything you just took in.
In addition to pure knowledge absorption, floating has also been shown to produce more subjective creativity in tasks as disparate as problem solving, writing, and jazz improvisation. Other mental goals that people float for include:
Breaking through writer’s block
Michael Chrichton reportedly floated for precisely this purpose.Learning languages
Apparently US Navy SEAL team 6 has used floating to reduce language acquisition time dramatically, although they haven’t released their studies to the publicSolving challenging problems
From architects to programmers to artists to mathematicians – people have found the float tank to be the perfect place for examining complicated challengesMemorization and Recall
Without constant distraction and disruption, our ability to review and recall new information increases, as does long term retention of that information.
Spiritual
There are many who are attracted to floating as a method for enhancing their spiritual practices. This obviously means different things to different people, and the strategies involved are just as diverse. Most commonly, these will take the form of:
Meditation
Goals here can range in scope from practicing mindfulness, to achieving a pleasurable physical state, to separation from the mind/body, all the way to full samadhi and even out-of-body experiences.Breath-work
Some people find breath-work in the tank to be a very immersive and beneficial experience. This can range from simple awareness of the breath as a point of concentration to a variety of more advanced breathing techniques.Self-Hypnosis
Floating naturally puts you into a hypnogogic state, and learning to manipulate that for hypnosis is a popular strategy for self-exploration and development. Self-suggestion can be powerful, especially when deep in the theta state.Dreamwork/Lucid Dreaming
With the dreamy, half-awake/half-asleep state that most floaters are familiar with, it’s easy to see how the tank could be used to encourage lucid dreaming, and work on better dream recall in general. Many people will use a "float journal" (in addition to a dream journal) as a further aid in the process.Self-reflection
This comes very naturally in the float tank anyway, and is perhaps the most informal item on this list. Nonetheless, there is a lot to be gained from the simple act of reflecting on your life and goals – noticing areas that may be able to use improvement and acknowledging the progress that you’ve already made.
Next time you schedule a float, try spending a little time beforehand pondering if there’s anything specific you might want to work on during your session. You can always ask your friendly float attendant for more ideas, and for help creating a personal plan if you’re interested in exploring the benefits of floating for a set purpose.
Stay inspired out there, and see you in the shop soon!