After several hours of sleep, oxygen consumption decreases about 8 percent. During meditation, however, oxygen consumption drops an average of 10 to 20 percent, a drop that occurs within 3 minutes of meditation! This hypometabolism decrease gives your cardiovascular system a healthy rest at the same time your mind is getting rest.
Meditation is not a subsitute for sleep, but it can be a great help when you can't sleep or didn't sleep well. It can take hours to feel alert after a nap but only ten minutes of meditation to feel alert. This makes meditation a great way to deal with jet lag and travel fatique, and a healthy energy boost after pulling an all-nighter, working a night shift or dealing with an infant who is waking several times a night.
In a study of patients with arteriosclerosis ( hardening of the arteries) the group that meditated improved the health of their carotid artery (the artery that transports blood to the brain). In contrast, the carotid artery walls of the group that did not meditate worsened. In another study of people with hypertention (high blood pressure), the group that learned to meditate significantly lowered their blood pressure, though only as long as they kept up their meditation practice. In contrast, the group that was instructed to relax but did no meditation, experienced little change in their blood pressure.
Meditation has also be found to be very useful for people with depression, compusive obsessive disorder, and addictions.
Meditation can activate your brain to produce more melatonin, which researchers belerve has both an anti-cancer and immune-enhancing effect. Since melatonin is vital to sleep, and sleep improves the immune system's effectiveness at preventing or healing sickness, disease and injuries, meditation can have a powerful and positive effect on your health and well-being.
Meditation helps your mind focus on positive outcomes and calm negative thinking and fear that produce over-eating. And staying calm and positive help you stay committed to a healthier diet and weight-loss program. Meditation appears to curb the production of excess cortisol, and research has shown that high levels of cortisol cause stress and fatique and probably contribute to excessive eating.
In a study of patients with arteriosclerosis (hardening of the arteries), the group that meditated improved the walls of their carotid artery (the blood vessel that transports blood to the brain). In contrast, the artery walls of the control group that did not meditate worsened. In another study of people suffering from hypertension (high blood pressure), the group that learned to meditate significantly lowered their blood presure (though only as long as they kept meditating) and the group that did not meditate saw little change in their blood pressure, even though they were instructed to relax.
If you are a writer, artist, musician, filmmaker or strive to be more creative in a trade, profession or business, daily meditation can dramatically increase your creativity, confidence, insight, and craft. And creative insights that arise during meditation are easier to remember and jot down than insights from dreams!
Meditation calms the amydala, that part of the brain responsible for the stressful, anxiety-producing fight or flight response. This calming effect allows your muscles, digestion and circulative system to relax. During meditation, your brain cells generate certain waves, such as alpha and theta waves, that increase activity in the parts of the brain where you experience happiness, positive thoughts, as well as love, compassion, empathy and spirituality. In this way, meditation allows your brain to feel serenity and hope, and be more positive. This effect of meditation is especially helpful during a serious illness or surgical procedure, after the breakup of a relationship, the loss of a job, or the death of a loved one or overcoming any other trauma. Given the power of meditation to calm anxiety and to create peace, happiness and optimism, how can anyone not meditate?
During meditation, the brain often produces more dopamine, a chemical that has a powerful and positive effect on memory and information processing. Meditation can also have a positive effect on the hippocampus, the area of the brain that produces new brain cells. Indeed, as Dr. Andrew Newberg, a neurologist at the University of Pennsylvania, points out, "the more complex your meditation becomes, and the longer you meditate, the more you strengthen the neural circuits in your brain and keep them from deteriorating with age."
Meditation increases the body's production of serotonin and dopamine, which make a person feel happiner. Studies show that meditation increases alpha and theta waves in the brain, which also contribute to happiness. Incidentally, the more time you mediate, the easier it is for the brian to meditate. And the more time your brain spends happy during meditation the more you will be "wired" to
be happy and positive, an effect that can continue into the rest of your day
and evening.
Meditation develops positive thinking, which boosts confidence. It helps quiet the part of the brain that grows fearful, helping an ahtlete stay calm, especially before a big event or game. Finally, because meditation helps you relax, focus and concentrate more, it can help prevent sports injuries.
Physicians and therapists at some of our most reputable medical centers, including Harvard Medical School, Columbia University Medical Center, UC Berkeley, Cleveland Clinic and elsewhere recommend meditation. Following are some of the leading proponents of meditation in the health field who wrote the books that we used for the information just presented:
Dr. Daniel G. Amen
Clinical neuroscientist, psychiatrist, and founder and director of the Amen Clnic for Behaviorial Medicine is a popular author whose books include Change Your Brain, Change Your Life (Three River Press 1998) and Magnificent Mind at Any Age (Harmony Books 2008).
Dr. Herbert Bensen
Cardiologist and founder of The Mind/Body Institute at Harvard Medical School, and author of The Relaxation Response (Harper Collins 2000).
Dr. Norman Doidge
Psychiatrist and researcher at Columbia University and University of Toronto, and author of The Brain That Changes Itself (Penquin Books 2007).
Dr. Andrew B. Newberg
Radiologist, psychiatrist, and director of University of Pennsylvani Center
for Spirituality and the Mind, and author of How God Changes Your Brain
(Random House 2009).
Dr. Srinivasan S. Pillay
Psychiatrist at Harvard Medical School and author of
Life Unlocked: 7 Revolutionary Lessons to Overcome Fear (Rodale 2010).
Dr. Gabriel S. Weiss
Internist and founder and director of the Asclepius Wellness Center
in Oceanside, California, and author of The Healing Power of Meditation
(Basic Health Publications 2008).