Stress
Stress is a physical, mental, or emotional response that causes bodily or mental tension. Historically, stress has been linked to Cortisol which is nature’s built in alarm system. The main function of Cortisol is as a hormonal response to a “dangerous” situation, also known as the fight or flight response. This response causes an increase in heart rate and blood pressure, essentially preparing you for a critical situation. But too much Cortisol can have a slew of negative effects, including anxiety, depression, fatigue, poor sleep, and much more.
Floating has been shown to be a useful stress management tool in addition to or instead of other stress management tools. Weekly floatation sessions can significantly reduce blood pressure and cortisol levels. One study looked at the long term effects of flotation therapy on stress-related pain. Results indicated that pain areas, stress, anxiety, and depression all decreased, while sleep quality and optimism increased. Positive levels were generally maintained 4 months after treatment.
Anxiety
Floating has been shown to provide a 3 x residual compared to modern prescription medication. For example, Benzodiazepines last anywhere from 4-8 hours, they are highly addictive, and can cause side effects including mental fatigue. Floating on the other hand, can last 20-24 hours post-float in terms of its anti-anxiety benefits.
How does floating counteract anxiety?
Floating can be used as a tool to reconnect you with your internal body.
See Joseph Wolpe’s theory of Reciprocal Inhibition.
Floating can serve as a reflexive response for relaxation
Reduces blood pressure
Slows heart rate
Slows brain waves
It does this by activating the parasympathetic nervous system
Depression
Approximately 30% of us will battle with depression over the course of our lifetime. Long term untreated depression can lead to an unhealthy cycle, including sleep problems, weakened immune system, physical pain, and much more. Depression is often a comorbid disorder, meaning it has a high likelihood of existing among other disorders in the same person.
One study looked at patients who have been diagnosed with depression, among other conditions ( anxiety, GAD, PTSD, social anxiety disorder, panic disorder, and agoraphobia), participated in one 60 minute float session. Results show that irrespective of diagnosis, floatation REST significantly reduced state anxiety, stress, muscle tension, pain, depression, and negative affect, while showing a significant improvement in mood (increases in serenity, relaxation, happiness, and overall well being). A notable result showed that the most severely anxious patients reported the largest effects.
Problem Solving
One common misconception with floatation therapy is that you should be able to quiet your mind during each session. That simply isn’t the case. Floating can be thought of as a direct reflection of your internal process. So if you’re dealing with a particularly stressful week or day, those stressors can sometimes seep into your float experience. So sometimes it is nearly impossible to “quiet your mind”. Instead of trying to quiet your mind, you can begin the process of working with your mind.
Due to the sensory reductive nature of floating, there are no external distractions that can take you out of a particular thought process. The float experience offers an optimal environment for cognitive appraisal. For example, if you’re dealing with a problem (work, relationship, personal, etc), you can go into your next float with an intention to work on that problem. You don’t need to spend the entirety of the 75 minutes thinking about the problem, but you can use it as a baseline, and cycle through your breath, and allow your mind to go where it may, but always cycling back to that particular intention. And even if you don’t fix the problem during that one float. Over the course of accumulated floats, you will start to chip away at the problem and eventually come to a solution or a state of acceptance with it.
In summary, the reflexive relaxation response that is elicited through floating puts you in a calm and optimal state of mind to work on problems without the common distractions of day to day life.
Rheumatoid Arthritis
Millions of people suffer from rheumatoid arthritis, which is caused mainly from inflammation. Floating can help short term relief from physical discomfort and provide long term positive psychological benefits.
Learn about how floating elicits the Anti-Gravity Effect.
See more about the relationship between floating and Magnesium.
Stress has been shown to exacerbate the symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis. Floating in a sensory reduced environment has been widely used as a potent stress management tool.
One study has shown that meditation can help individuals cope with chronic pain associated with arthritis, providing a mental framework to better deal with pain and stress that accompanies the chronic disease. Floating is like meditation on steroids. You are eliminating all external noise and distractions, providing the optimal environment for effective meditation.
Insomnia
30-40% of adults experience insomnia each year, and numbers aren’t decreasing due an increase in screen time, especially in the evening hours. We all know the importance of sleep and how it impacts overall mental and physical health.
The problem seems to lie in a difficulty in shutting off the brain at night when trying to sleep. This can be amplified with stress, anxiety, and muscle tension.
We sleep through cycles consisting of different brain waves:
Beta waves: alert wakefulness
Alpha waves: relaxed wakefulness
Theta waves: deep meditation, light sleep
Delta waves: deep sleep
Floating and its reflexive relaxation response, make it easier for the brain to downshift from alpha waves into theta waves. Theta brain waves transition into delta brain waves, which is where you experience the deepest sleep.
Floating can help train your brain to transition through these brain waves more effortlessly.
Burnout
Burnout Syndrome symptoms include fatigue, lack of energy, physical pains, sleep problems, and problems organizing daily life due to a high stress load.
Learn about how floating elicits the Anti-Gravity Effect.
Floating in a sensory reduced environment has been widely used as a potent stress management tool.
One study looked at individuals on the brink of sick leave and diagnosed with burnout syndrome. Results indicate that a 10 week float treatment regimen (2 x 45 min floats per week plus 1 x 60 min conversational therapy per week) significantly decreased anxiety and depression while showing an increase in positive outlook on life. Additionally, there was a significant decrease in extent of painful areas and pain-intensity. Post treatment all participants continued to work and there was no need for sick leave.
Floating has proved to be an effective treatment for those working in high stress environments including shift workers, first responders, nurses & hospital workers, and mental health practitioners to name a few.
Concussion
The current guidelines in treating sport-related concussions involve both physical and cognitive rest. High levels of physical or cognitive activity may interfere with the recovery process. The symptoms of a concussion include headaches, sleep disturbances, emotional irregularities, and cognitive dysfunction.
Floating can compliment accelerated learning and recovery. When you reduce one or more senses, the remaining senses may become heightened. But when you take away all the senses, the brain is left with itself, promoting deep relaxation and focus.
A concussion is essentially blocked neuronal pathways which form a brain scar. Your brain is then forced to use secondary neuronal pathways, where information travels a lot slower because it is inefficient and unfamiliar. The more we begin using those secondary pathways, the faster and more efficient they become. Floating gives your brain a break from constantly processing external information (light, sound, gravity, etc) and allows the brain to begin rerouting and using those secondary pathways.
Physical Recovery
Recovery has been suggested to be one of the most important steps in the training process for athletic performance. Floating has been shown to be a potential recovery strategy for these athletes.
Floating following exercise has been shown to significantly lower perceived muscle soreness and increase mood state. One study demonstrated that long-term float use can lead to improvements in sleep quality. Sleep is commonly known to be one of the best recovery strategies for athletes recovering from the physical and psychological stresses of training.
High-intensity exercise contributes to the production and accumulation of blood lactate, which is then cleared via the recovery process. Floating has been shown to decrease levels of blood lactate following maximal eccentric exercise.
See more about the relationship between floating and Magnesium.
To summarize, floating seems to speed up the recovery process in athletes involved in high-intensity training.
Headaches
Floating can give your brain a break from the external stimuli that can often trigger a headache/migraine. As you’re induced into a reflexive relaxation response, your muscles are able to achieve a state of complete rest - blood flow increases which can counter blood vessel constriction. An uptake of Magnesium (present in epsom salt) transdermally acts as a potent muscle relaxant which allows your entire body to settle into an even deeper state of relaxation.
Learn more about floating and the Theta State.
One study has shown that the combination of floatation REST and progressive muscle relaxation can serve as an effective treatment for chronic tension headaches and help increase the duration of treatment effects.
Muscle Tension
The main cause of muscle tension is the physiological effects of stress, which can change the body’s nervous system by constricting blood vessels and reducing blood flow to muscles, tendons, and nerves. Floating seems to help mitigate muscle tension in two ways: (1) by acting as a useful stress management tool, and (2) relieving physical pain. One study looked at people suffering from chronic pain consisting of aching muscles in the neck and back areas. Results indicate that participants with the most severe perceived pain intensity showed significant reduction in perceived pain, and several of these participants had experienced chronic pain for years and were treatment resistant.
There are 3 theories on how floating helps treat muscle tension: (1) the reflexive relaxation response, (2) the anti-gravity effect, and (3) magnesium.
Floating activates the parasympathetic nervous system, thus reduces blood pressure, slows heart rate, and slows brain waves into a prolonged theta state.
Learn about how floating elicits the Anti-Gravity Effect.
See more about the relationship between floating and Magnesium.
Visualization
Professional sports teams have been using float tanks to prepare for high pressure moments. Floating promotes a calm, stable environment to practice visualization techniques. Mental rehearsal and imagery is enhanced in a relaxed state. The float tank induces this reflexive relaxation response which allows for more effective and efficient visualization.
The anti-gravity effect during the float takes pressure off of the musculoskeletal system and liberates areas of the brain allowing for enhanced awareness of internal states (interoception). The reduction of sensory information allows one to more easily enter the theta brain state. “Theta waves are accompanied by sudden insights, creative inspiration, feelings of serenity and vivid imagery”. This increases the awareness of thoughts and images.
Floating has been shown to increase right brain functioning, which is involved in processing large scale information, and is known as the creative side of the brain. Floating decreases external noise - heightened internal awareness and decreased psychological arousal. This can help enhance communication and integration by various levels of the brain (hindbrain, midbrain, forebrain).
In line with sport optimization, “biofeedback research has clearly demonstrated that, under certain conditions of heightened awareness it is possible to control a wide range of bodily processes, including the control of the firing of single muscle fibres”. Without external distractions one is able to utilize a mental biofeedback mechanism. In the float tank, an athlete can focus on body systems and imaginary movement.
PTSD/Trauma
PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder) can be defined as a fear and panic response that lingers long after the trauma occurred. Essentially what is happening is an overactivation of the sympathetic nervous system which is triggered by a particular traumatic event. This trigger can elicit a fight or flight response in even the most unsuspecting situations of day to day life. Common symptoms include reliving the trauma, vivid nightmares, sleep problems, emotional numbing or a loss of interest in daily activities.
Learn more about floating and the activation of the Reflexive Relaxation Response.
Many people suffering from PTSD often develop comorbid disorders including depression, anxiety, and substance abuse. Floating can help dampen these comorbid disorders. Moreover, floatation therapy can be used in conjunction with other therapies to combat the negative effects of PTSD.
See Joseph Wolpe’s theory of Reciprocal Inhibition.
A similar case could be made using the theory of reciprocal inhibition in regards to PTSD.
Fibromyalgia
Fibromyalgia is characterized by musculoskeletal pain all over the body which can be accompanied by widespread pain, fatigue, and cognitive difficulties. It is believed that fibromyalgia amplifies painful sensations by affecting the way the brain processes pain signals. Common symptoms include, muscle pain, muscle tightness, stress, mood disturbances, inability to achieve restful sleep, and magnesium deficiency.
One study demonstrated that floatation REST provided significantly temporary reductions in pain, muscle tension, stress, anxiety and sadness, as well as significant increases in relaxation and feelings of well being, energy, and ease of movement. There was also significant improvement in the quality of sleep”.
From the moment you lay back your body immediately experiences the feeling of zero gravity. As your body relaxes effortlessly into the water, pressure on your muscles and joints lessen, allowing the feelings of pain to disappear. Completely safe and free from constant pain, you enter into a deep facilitated relaxation state, both mentally and physically.
See more about the relationship between floating and Magnesium.
