From East To West, What Did Mindfulness Lose Along The Way?

Spending time in an isolation tank is a great way to practice being present, removing external distractions about the past, worries about the future, and escaping your stress. In a word, it’s a great place to be mindful.

Over the last few years, mindfulness has become a popular tool for improving general mental wellness. When mental health professionals talk about mindfulness, they’re referring to a state of “moment-to-moment non-judgmental awareness.”

Studies have shown mindfulness offers remarkable results in dealing with stress-related conditions such as anxiety disorders, PTSD, and depression. The results have been so profound, in fact, that they were considered extremely unlikely from a non-invasive treatment (at least by the standards of Western medicine). As these problems become more ubiquitous, non-traditional methods for dealing with it also become more common.

In addition to this, our world has experienced a massive perspective shift recently. Since the COVID-19 pandemic, many of us have found that  much of our lives are now lived in front of screens. Our phones, computers, and televisions are operating as our gateways to the rest of the world as our social interactions have become increasingly more online. Which brings its own set of challenges.

Mindfulness becomes even more appealing as we cope with the newfound stresses of the modern world. And by “stresses of the modern world” we mean “how we function on a daily basis now.” Increased access to modern communication means that the expectation for more immediate responses to emails, texts, and phone calls; the gig economy has made it so we’re working even in our free time; and a whole host of other additional responsibilities that have been tacked onto daily lives as a result of being constantly plugged in.

We already know that floating is also a great way to unplug from it all, much in the same way mindfulness is. It makes sense given that floating is such a great way to practice mindfulness more generally (along with a whole host of other benefits). Those intimately familiar with mindfulness, like those who practice traditional Buddhist meditation techniques, have said that floating makes it much easier to get into states of mindful awareness, especially for beginners.

While mindfulness techniques have had a noticeable impact on health and improving behavior generally, there are distinct differences between Eastern and Western visions of mindfulness that might help explain why, despite the increased popularity of mindfulness, health problems related to stress and anxiety are on the rise instead of decreasing.

Is there something about how mindfulness is presented in Western culture that is keeping us from experiencing the full benefits of the practice? There are a few fundamental differences in Eastern and Western mindfulness that are worth looking at to see how our cultures handle anxiety and stress.

Eastern mindfulness (sati)  dates back to the 5th century BC when the earliest version of Buddhism started taking shape in Southeast Asia. As part of a religious practice, sati is one tenet in a series of eight that layout the principles for how to live your life in a way that leads towards enlightenment. These eight principles, The Noble Eightfold Path, are often presented as a wheel, with the spokes all connecting together.

You can already see how, presented in this way, mindfulness is more than just a stress reduction technique. It’s a guiding principle integrated into a broader philosophy about how to live your life, and as such, it impacts culture and behavior more broadly than when it’s presented as a treatment. Buddhism also places a heavy emphasis on how individual actions impact the greater community and The Noble Eightfold Path is much more about how to act in a way that serves the whole of humanity, not just personal betterment.

This Buddhist framing of mindfulness became popular in Western Culture in the 70s, when Asian culture and philosophy was becoming much more widely accepted after World War II. Part of this process came about during a broad secularization of religious concepts as well. Some of the teachings about community and service to others got removed in favor of emphasizing individual self-improvement instead.

It’s worth noting that mindfulness as a concept has been around in Western society for a long time as well. Whereas Buddhism has The Noble Eightfold Path, Catholicism has a similar set of precepts called the 7 Heavenly Virtues, one of which is Prudence. While contemporarily, prudence has taken on the meaning of “cautious”, it’s earlier definitions include being able to discipline oneself through the use of reason, taking in information without judgement, and maintaining awareness. Sounds familiar, doesn’t it? Prudence was also deemed the “mother of all virtues” by philosopher Thomas Aquinas, who shaped a lot of early Western thought.

If Western culture already has a comparable philosophical principle to mindfulness in Eastern society, then what is it that’s being brought over to help address our mental health? Is it just using Buddhism as window dressing for a practice that Western society has forgotten about in favor of secularization? Probably not.

The important thing to remember about mindfulness when we practice is that “present awareness” isn’t enough to improve our lives. It’s an important facet to a better way of living, but without a fundamental readjustment to how we think about the world around us and our role within it, we cannot change the aspects of society that are causing this stress. If the only thing we’re doing when we practice mindfulness is acknowledging the present moment for several minutes so that we can reduce our own anxiety, then all that is providing for our problems is a band-aid. And while it is a useful tool, mindfulness alone isn’t enough to make a better life for ourselves or those around us.

While mindfulness is a major component of the benefits of wellness practices like floating, it’s also important to recognize that there are limits to how it’s discussed and that not all mindfulness is created equal. We can take comfort, at least, in knowing that floating forces a more deliberate form of mindfulness that removes us from outside stimulation and distraction far beyond what other mindfulness-based therapies can provide. This lets us focus more deeply on the practice and carry that sense of being present into the rest of our lives, instead of using it solely as a retreat from our day-to-day existence. And, as with most things in life, if we approach our time in the tanks intentionally with this in mind, we can find deeper meaning than we may have otherwise.

Appreciation and Thoughtfulness

If you’ve ever gone on a walk after a good float, you’ve probably felt something similar to the experience of cresting a summit after a long hike or staring deeply into a beautiful painting. It’s that overwhelming feeling that comes from a profound sense of awe after being in the presence of something greater than yourself.

When we stop to smell the roses, it improves more than just the scent of the roses. When we slow down to appreciate the little things, those little things take up more of our mental focus. If we stop to think about this phenomenon, it can inspire some curious questions. What actually is awe? Why does it feel so good to experience it? Beyond being satisfying, how does it impact us?

Brain scans of people experiencing awe give us a few insights into some of these questions. Awe inspiring moments can reduce activation in an area of the brain called the Default Mode Network. While a lot happens in this area of the brain, some of what it’s responsible for is auto-biographical information like our memories, opinions, and personal traits. Essentially, the Default Mode Network helps us understand the world through the context of ourselves. As a result, it’s also what helps determine how we feel about ourselves, our memories of the past, and our thoughts about the future.

The Default Mode Network works opposite another part of our brain called the Executive Control Network, which is the part of the brain that helps us make observations, pay attention to things outside of ourselves, and perform tasks. They are anti-correlated, meaning they don’t typically work at the same time. It’s difficult to make observations about the world around us while focusing on something from our past, which is why it’s easy to get distracted nostalgically strolling down memory lane when we were supposed to be studying for that final exam in college.

Basically, when we experience awe we’re quieting down the part of our brain that makes us focus on ourselves, the past, the future, and the outside world.These are the very same types of thought that we work to quiet in our brains when we float or practice mindfulness in other ways. That’s not just conjecture, either: the Float Clinic at the Laureate Institute of Brain Research has been researching what exactly happens to the brain when we float. We’ve learned that floating can be incredibly helpful for those who experience anxiety and other mental health conditions.

We’re also finally starting to see that part of the reason it’s so effective is because it’s reducing the activity in the Default Mode Network as well, which helps explain how it reduces anxiety. If we can’t think about social obligations, failures from the past, or worries we have for the future, it makes it much more difficult for our brains to perpetuate anxious thinking. This leaves more room for other parts of our brain to sit in the driver’s seat.

After a float, we’re likely at our most receptive to the sensations outside of ourselves, making it easier for us to appreciate the beauty of the world around us and the communities that we’re a part of. This is also a possible explanation for the profound sense of awe we can have when we observe beautiful artwork or when we meditate.

This makes mindfulness self-reinforcing. When we practice being more present and less focused on ourselves, it becomes a habit. The more often we practice stepping into this mental state, the easier it is to return to when we need to. It also enhances our appreciation for other things as well. Food tastes better, art is more captivating, we can engage in creative activities more easily, building connections between us and the rest of the world.  This, in turn, has the potential to extend that enhanced sense of presence beyond just ourselves, into others around us.

How to Learn to Love Yourself (and Others)!

Let’s talk about loving yourself. It’s that time of year when partners and paramours really try to show their affection to their special someone. Alternatively, for the unattached, this time of year can be a reminder of our own isolation (and after 2020, that’s something we don't need more of).

Whatever your Valentine’s Day might look like this year, you already have the perfect date: yourself. Even if you’ve already got a beau, belle, or similar beloved you intend to dote on, dedicating some affection internally can pay off for them as much as for you. 

This means more than buying yourself something nice, giving yourself compliments, or going for a spa day. In fact, limiting your idea of self-love to such a surface level interpretation is going to be counterproductive in the long term.

If you’re going to date yourself, you gotta remember that it’s not going to be like a first date. You already know your best stories, after all. It’s more like going on a date night after a lifetime of marriage. The kind of date that reminds you why you fell in love in the first place. The important thing is to find ways to connect with yourself, to show that you care about your own well-being and you can appreciate the things about yourself that no one else will notice.

Self-love is as much about self-acceptance as it is self-care. When you accept yourself for who you are, it makes it easier to focus on others around you. Look at it this way: if we place most of our attention on our mistakes, then we are also failing to appreciate what’s truly important in life: the subtle flashes of beauty that come into existence before blinking away forever, the quiet moments of serenity that exist in between the big ones, or the joy that come from sharing these things with those closest to us.

Too much focus on your flaws can become a compounding issue, too. If you dwell on your negative traits and behaviors (like many of us are prone to do) they can become self-reinforcing. Guilt isn’t a great motivator for change, and instead can lead to fatalistic conclusions about how inevitable our perceived inadequacies can be. And since we have a bias towards negative information, we tend to seek out harsh or critical information over positive information, and if no one provides it, we’ll often provide it ourselves.

This is especially relevant right now on the heels of 2020. Most of us have probably been more than a little critical of ourselves lately, even if we’re not aware of it. We often blame ourselves for things that are outside our control, making it easy to feel like we’ve fallen short of our goals. Which means now more than ever – it’s important to handle yourself, your ambitions, and especially your failures, with a little grace.

So how do we address this? Are there things we can do on our self-love dates that can help make us the best version of ourselves? 

Yes! As it turns out, mindfulness is a great way to counter this impulse of self-obsession, so long as we do it correctly. Mindfulness, as a practice, has been a fundamental part of Hinduism and Buddhism for centuries. The practice of quieting the mind and keeping the body still was about stepping outside of one’s regular, self-oriented experiences, and was essential to religious practices that helped emphasize how the individual could improve the greater community. As mindfulness in the Western world has become more popular, it has often been used to amplify our sense of self, instead of helping to diminish it. So, while mindfulness can be extremely effective at reducing this cultural self-obsession, it needs to be approached intentionally to achieve that goal.

Floating is a great way to practice mindfulness and exercise being present. In fact, without any external stimulation, it can be difficult to do anything but live in the moment while your sense of self melts into the water and air around you. Dr. John C. Lilly,  the creator of the float tank, used his invention to help develop his own radical personal improvement techniques.

So this Valentine’s Day, do yourself – and your loved ones – a favor. Treat yourself, not just to a pleasant and relaxing experience, but form that meaningful connection with who you are deep down. Go for a float, become one with the Nothingness you’re surrounded in, and come out ready to give everything you’ve got to those who need it. With the way this past year has been, it’s more important than ever to look out for each other, and that starts by looking out for yourself.

Floating Your Way to a Better You

The beginning of a new year is often a time for making plans and inspiring change, but 2021 has just started and already it has a lot of expectations being placed upon it. With the pandemic, 2020 felt like a global “timeout” for a lot of people, so we’ve all had to push things off and are banking on this year being an opportunity for new beginnings.

In the spirit of pursuing positive change, here’s a collection of some lesser known benefits of floating for making changes in your life.

SLEEP

This one feels like cheating a little bit because it seems so obvious, but a better night’s sleep is actually one of the best ways to set yourself up for success when trying to create a new routine or build better habits. Maybe the better habit you’re trying to build is around sleep, in which case, hey – two birds, one stone!

Improving sleep is consistently one of the most reported benefits from float studies (right below reduced stress and anxiety).

IMPROVED LEARNING AND TRAINING

One of the really interesting ways floating impacts our minds is through our emotional state, which can, in turn, impact how we retain information. People experiencing negative emotions tend to have trouble remembering positive experiences and, even with neutral information, what they recall tends to be less specific. 

Since floating is so good at reducing stress and anxiety, it’s probably no surprise that in clinical trials researchers found that memory recollection in people who floated was more vivid and intense compared to control groups.

Floating also helps with training skills as well. In high performing athletes who trained for precision, floating helped improve performance beyond their regular training plateau. Whether it was archery, marksmanship, or endurance, floating made it possible for them to do better more consistently.

ADDICTION

Anyone who’s recovered from addiction can tell you that isolating yourself from whatever is triggering your impulses can be extremely helpful, even for relatively short periods of time since it removes you from whatever the motivation is to break apart the impulse to relapse.

There was some excellent research done about sensory isolation to combat addiction of nicotine, alcohol, and narcotics. The studies showed that prolonged isolation is really great at dealing with withdrawal symptoms as well, lessening their intensity and making them more manageable. It’s been so effective that there are certain recovery programs that have begun integrating floating into their treatment to help lower the risk of relapse in drug addiction.

In addition to the research, there are several personal stories that have attributed floating to helping with addiction. John Lennon, as shared in Lives of John Lennon by Albert Goldman, famously used floating to help him overcome his heroin addiction.

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No matter what your New Year’s Resolution may be, floating can be a really helpful tool in getting there. And even if you’re not sure what goals you’d like to focus on in the New Year, a float tank can be a great place to think about it. 

Salinity And Serenity

Salinity and Serenity: Floating Your Way to Inner Peace

Serenity. That sounds nice, doesn’t it?

With 2020 not letting up as it careens to a close, serenity can seem like nothing but an out-of-reach pipedream – both in our own lives and in the world as a whole. It’s difficult to relax and focus on the present when so much of even the immediate future is uncertain. In times like these, though, fostering that sense of mindfulness and serenity is perhaps one of the most important things that we can do.

With so much of the chaos around us being outside of our control, it’s especially important to focus on those areas where we can have the most positive impact. As always, one of the most immediate places we can make the largest difference is in taking better care of ourselves. Even more precisely, cultivating our own mental health – our own serenity – is a very worthwhile endeavor.

When discussing mental health it can be tempting to talk about the negative symptoms of a certain condition, such as how stress, anxiety, or fatigue aggravate mental health issues. Rarely do we talk about improvements to mental health in strictly positive ways without comparing them to an existing negative. Something needs to be wrong in order for us to “fix” it.

This isn’t just a result of our culture: it’s baked into our psychiatric science and treatment as well. In the DSM-5, the reference manual for diagnosing mental disorders, a huge number of the disorders’ descriptions end with, “...and interfere with daily life.” What if nothing is wrong? Or, if something is wrong, what if it’s not bad enough to significantly interfere with your daily life?

It can be hard to remember that mental health isn’t an on/off switch. It’s a gradient, and even when you’re not suffering you still always have room to make things better for yourself.

This is one of the things that floating does best. It improves your mental wellness and sense of personal satisfaction. It improves your serenity.

Now, when we say serenity, you probably have some kind of mental image of meditation, or relaxation, or of Joss Whedon’s Firefly. All totally valid, but we’re really only focusing on the first two here. In addition to its cultural meaning, serenity is an actual scientific term. It’s something psychologists measure alongside other mental wellness markers – essentially it gauges how well we practice being present, how ready we are to offer forgiveness, as well as how content we feel with ourselves despite negativity in our lives.

Serenity also happens to be one of the many mental health factors that has been studied in recent floatation research. In 2018, Dr. Justin Feinstein and his team at LIBR were able to demonstrate the effect a single 60-minute float had on serenity, and we don’t think we’re overstating it by saying the results were impressive:

For anxious participants, serenity skyrocketed post-float, above even the baseline for non-anxious participants. In the non-anxious population, though, serenity still increased a significant amount, illustrating very nicely this idea of mental health as a gradient.

Perhaps even more impressively, when we look at the data from all 50 participants in the study, every single one saw an increase in serenity after floating. Nearly ¼ of the participants maxed out the scale post-float. The graph for all participants’ data shows just how impressive this is. The red bar indicates how serene they felt before the float session, and the blue shows the (often quite drastic) improvement.

You can see a presentation on the full results from this study here, and read the actual research article here. Serenity was just one of many things studied, and the same sorts of impact are shown on decreasing things like anxiety and muscle tension while increasing relaxation and energy levels.

As a little teaser, here is a chart showing the negative and positive mental health traits impacted by a single float:

This year, and this holiday season, may be insane, but we as humans experiencing it can choose to make an impact where we can: in self-care. Whether that’s meditation, exercise, sitting by a fire sipping hot chocolate, or (as we are quick to encourage) hopping into a float tank.

Serenity isn’t as far away as you may think, but it does require you to set the stage for it by setting aside time for yourself.

Floating and Creativity: Finding Inspiration in the Darkness

We tend to think of creativity as synonymous with expression (writing, music, art, etc.), but creativity is also how we respond to unusual situations, how to approach old problems in new ways, as well as how we share this information in a way that is both entertaining and informative.

Creativity is such a fundamental part of what it means to be human that we often take it for granted. Change is one of the defining characteristics of the human experience, and being able to adapt to it and think laterally when problems arise has shaped our history in both big and small ways. Innovations like flight, the internet, and homogenized milk were all expressions of creativity. It’s something we use daily, even if we’re not thinking about it: developing a sense of style, finding ways to automate your work, or even creating a unique Zoom background for your digital meetings are more everyday examples of how creativity influences our lives.

Floating has such an obvious effect on creativity, that it’s hard to find a float center that doesn’t celebrate it in some way, whether through float-inspired artwork on display, post-float journals for zen’d out floaters to express themselves in, or album releases of float-inspired music.

So what is the connection between floating and creativity? And how do you research something as nebulous and ubiquitous as creativity, anyhow?

For a long time, it was widely believed to be difficult (if not impossible) to manufacture creativity. Beautiful muses could apparently help, but it was still something intangible and unreliable. Either inspiration strikes or… it doesn’t.

For as long as written language has existed, we’ve struggled with how to make inspiration strike. The I Ching, one of the oldest texts in existence, is fundamentally about how to foster creativity to encourage change – in yourself and the rest of your life. 

Despite being written thousands of years ago, many of the teachings are frighteningly contemporary. The text itself is non-linear and there’s a lot of debate about specific word choice in translation, which makes it difficult to quote out of context, but one of the fundamental principles it states clearly and repeatedly is a strong comparison between times of quiet rest and solitude and nurturing the mentality necessary to adapt to great change.

Saying that we should avoid distraction and overstimulation to foster creativity is not a new idea, as it turns out. In fact, it may be one of the oldest ones we’ve ever had!

Synthesizing an abstract and analytical approach

More recently, academia has taken a more methodical approach to looking at creativity. In 1954, poet and academic Brewster Ghiselin compiled a symposium, The Creative Process, from some of history’s creative heavy hitters, including such greats as Einstein, Van Gogh, and Mozart to name a few.

Ghiselin took these observations and attempted to make sense of the common threads that give spark to creativity. In an anecdote from Henri Poincaré about inspiration, Ghiselin was struck with the process that led to one of his most important discoveries in mathematics: “he lay unable to sleep and became a spectator of some ordinarily hidden aspects of his own spontaneous creative activity.” Ghiselin saw this as a fundamental part of unlocking creative potential, “though Poincaré was conscious, he did not assume direction of his creative activity at the stage described, and as it seems to have been a sort of activity not susceptible of conscious control, apparently he could not have done so.”  In short, he’s making the same observation as the I Ching: when we seek out stillness, our minds work out the rest of the hard stuff.

But philosophy and essays are not research, and at the time, scientists didn’t really know how to study something ] as abstract as creativity. Psychology was still a very young and developing field, and it would be a few decades before anyone would publish peer-reviewed research on how floating impacts creativity and problem solving.

In 1987, that’s exactly what happened at the University of British Columbia. The researchers there found that psychology professors came up with more ideas after floating, and that those ideas were generally more creative, with every participant except for one finding their floats to have an extremely positive impact on their ability to create. These results were later verified by the same researchers and replicated by other scientists at the University of Vermont. The Vermont study also found that people who floated were less likely to feel fatigued or frustrated by complicated problems.

Sweden’s Karlstadt University, one of the leading float research institutes in the world, saw this research and began attempting to replicate the results. Between 1998 and 2003, they published four separate articles on the benefits of floating on creativity, in addition to the other research they were doing. They found that despite taking longer to to solve problems, the subjects who floated all found more creative solutions, that it could help with creativity and literacy skills for those who use english as a second language, that floating increased originality, but lowered deductive reasoning,  and finally that floating could potentially be a safe way to access altered states of consciousness, which could lead to increased optimism and creativity.

What makes this research so interesting is that so many of these studies took place before smartphones existed. More so now than ever, we live in a distracted, interconnected world, and the issue of “screentime” dominating our daily lives is an issue at the forefront of our society.

It doesn’t take a team of dedicated researchers with decades of studies to understand why floating stimulates creativity, though. It intuitively makes sense. Unplugging and centering yourself in quiet solitude is naturally going to help your mental faculties. Removing all distractions, even gravity, is a great way to rewire your mind and channel your creative energy into the places it needs to go, not just where the world takes it.

What Do High Level Athletes Know About Floating?

Here’s a sports trivia question for all our athletically-inclined readers: 

What do the Dallas Cowboys, the Golden State Warriors, the Chicago Cubs, The Manchester United Football Club, and Michael Phelps all have in common?

You might see this lineup and think “well, the ‘92 Dallas Cowboys won the Superbowl that year, the Golden State Warriors won the NBA Finals in ‘14, the Cubs made history when they won the 2016 World Series, Manchester United is one of the most hono(u)red Football Clubs in the world, and Michael Phelps has won more gold medals than any other Olympian in history! They’re all winners!”

But that’s not all they have in common: they also all used float tanks.

They weren’t alone, either: the New England Patriots, UFC Hall of Famer Royce Gracie, the Chicago Bulls, Olympic Gymnast Aly Raisman, the Philadelphia Eagles, Olympic Gold Medalist Carl Lewis, The Detroit Pistons, as well as literally hundreds of other professional athletes have incorporated floating into their training and recovery programs throughout the years.

Floating is one of the best kept secrets in high-performing athletes and there’s some interesting research that helps explain why.

Raising the Performance Ceiling

If someone told you that laying in the dark on a bed of saltwater could give you superhuman strength or speed, would you believe them? It may not be as far-fetched as it sounds.

One study found that high-level athletes who have plateaued – those who don’t see any additional benefits from more training – would see an improvement in performance after floating in conjunction with visualization techniques, even without additional training.

Put another way, athletes were able to increase their peak performance just by floating before competition. A followup study not only confirmed this result but also showed that floating multiple times between games led to significant improvements over a single float! This demonstrates something that most floaters already know: the more you float, the better it is for you.

Improved Precision

Beyond general athletic performance, a few studies looked at more specific benefits of floating in athletes.

Several studies tested how floating affects marksmanship. All 3 studies had a float group and a control group, with participants from all skill levels.

In the rifle marksmanship study 75% had a statistically significant increase in accuracy pre- to post-float with no such increase was found in the control group (relaxation without floating). A similar effect was found in the darts study, with 80% of participants seeing an improvement. It’s worth noting that in both studies, these improvements were seen regardless of skill level.

While the archery study didn’t see any significant increase in accuracy, it did show that the float-group had more consistent scores than the non-float group, something that the other two studies found as well.

Reduced Recovery Time

While the benefits described above could be explained as a side effect of stress reduction, there’s more to the story of the impact on floating in physical performance, certainly not enough to explain why floating has been so popular among high-level athletes.

Building off of earlier research, scientists in recent years have started using biometrics to see what’s happening to athletes who float on a physiological level. A 2013 study looked at the effect floating has on lactic acid build-up.

Lactic acid is associated with that post-workout feeling of tightness in your muscles that causes your body to stiffen and get sore. Professional athletes are always looking for new ways to reduce the amount it builds up during a workout to maximize performance.

What they found was that floating after exercise showed a 62% reduction in lactic acid buildup on average compared to the control group. Participants also reported feeling less pain and were back at peak performance sooner.

A followup study in 2016 was able to replicate this effect with a larger sample size over 9 different sports. Not only were they able to replicate the lactic acid reduction, they also found a significant reduction in muscle soreness and improved mood and reduced fatigue in those that floated.

Looking at the Whole Picture

When you take all of these effects together, you can start to see why floating has been one of the best kept secrets of successful athletes. When you take into consideration the stress reduction benefits as well, you can see how floating might help them be at the top of their mental game in addition to their professional one.

The best part about all of this? Floating is helpful for athletes at every level. You don’t need to be an Olympian to see the benefits of floating in your exercise. It can be a nice way to cool down after a jog or help you recover after playing in a local league game on the weekends.

Football:

Minnesota Vikings

Houston Texans

New England Patriots

Seattle Seahawks

Denver Broncos

Dallas Cowboy

Cincinnati Bengals

Philadelphia Eagles

Buffalo Bills

Baseball:

Chicago Cubs

Minnesota Twins 

St. Louis Cardinals 

Arizona Diamondbacks 

Philadelphia Phillies 

San Francisco Giants 

LA Dodgers

Houston Astros

Basketball:

Chicago Bulls

NY Nicks 

NY Nets 

Washington Wizards

Detroit Pistons

Golden State Warriors

Atlanta hawks

OKC Thunder

Hockey:

Philadelphia Flyers 

Chicago Blackhawks

Misc:

Manchester United 

All Blacks …New Zealand Rugby

Crusaders …New Zealand Rugby

Carleton Football club Australian football 

Taft Rugby

Team GB Rowers

Individual athletes:

Aly Raisman

Michael Phelps

Stephen Curry

Hunter Pence

J.J. watt

Cody Garbrandt

Harrison Barnes

Carl Lewis

Phillips Idowu

Wayne Rooney

Henry Cejudo

Razak Al Hassan

Mohammed Usman

James Vick

Mark and Montana DeLaRosa

Whoop Experiment

So, last week I conducted an experiment on myself.  Using my Whoop performance monitor, I wanted to see the effect that floating 5 days in a row would have on my sleep and recovery. In the photos below, you can see my sleep quality and recovery leading up to the floats.  Not very good, is it?

The next 6 slides show recovery and heart rate during the float, as well as heart rate during sleep that evening.

We’ll mostly focus on the correlation between heart rate variability (HRV) and recovery here.  Now, heart rate variability is “simply a measure of the variation in time between each heartbeat. This variation is controlled by a primitive part of the nervous system called the autonomic nervous system (ANS). It works regardless of our desire and regulates, among other things, our heart rate, blood pressure, breathing, and digestion. The ANS is subdivided into two large components, the sympathetic and the parasympathetic nervous system, also known as the fight-or-flight mechanism and the relaxation response.” (https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/heart-rate-variability-new-way-track-well-2017112212789)

Basically, the higher the HRV, the better recovery. Now during a float, the environment greatly reduces the demand on the ANS. Heart beat naturally slows down as the body has no demands placed on it, blood pressure reduces with the removal of external stress, and breathing gets into a steady rhythm. Looking at the slides above, it becomes apparent that HRV and recovery go hand in hand. Here’s a short breakdown of the data:

Non float day averages: Float day averages:

HRV - 120 HRV - 141.4

Recovery - 55.9% Recovery - 73%

Sleep quality - 70% Sleep quality - 74.2%

Sleep length - 6:29 Sleep length - 6:57

Strain - 12.58 Strain - 15.8

Low/high for non float days: Low/high for float days:
HRV - 77/163 HRV - 123/159

Recovery - 23/89% Recovery - 58/87%

Sleep quality - 60/74% Sleep quality - 66/89%

Sleep length - 5:39/7:02 Sleep length - 5:57/7:25

Strain - 8.6/14.7 Strain - 13/17.6

To break that down a little more, over the 5 days we saw:
HRV increase of 21.4

Recovery increase of 17.1%

Sleep quality increase of 4.2%

Sleep length increase of 28 minutes

Strain increase of 3.22

Now here’s where it gets really interesting. With only 30 minutes total more sleep over the course of the 5 float days (a measly average of 6 minutes per night!), there was a substantial increase in quality and recovery.  And that’s taking into account more strain that the body was able to take through exercise.  There were a few unforeseen variables, like noisy neighbors and my 4-year-old crawling into my bed that disturbed the sleep a little, but that’s life.

We all have stress in our lives, and there are many ways of dealing with it. Whether it be emotional, physical or both, we can’t just ignore it and hope it goes away. One of the greatest aspects of floating is that it’s completely noninvasive, and there are no harmful side effects. Essentially, it’s nothing at all. Just you, by yourself, having an opportunity to remove all the external stressors that make life less enjoyable. Aside from the benefits of reducing stress, regular floats are tremendous for sleep quality, which of course is critical for immune system, mood, and just keeping your body and mind working at its best.