Effects of Mindfulness Meditation Duration and Type on Well-being: an Online Dose-Ranging Randomized Controlled Trial.
Level 2 - randomized trial
Individual randomized controlled trial
PubMed 37304656 · doi:10.1007/s12671-023-02119-2
What was done
A multi-arm online randomized controlled trial evaluated the effects of mindfulness meditation duration and type over 2 weeks in a healthy community sample. Participants were randomized into one of four daily intervention groups: ~10 minutes sitting, ~30 minutes sitting, ~10 minutes movement, or ~30 minutes movement meditation. Primary and secondary outcomes included mental well-being, psychological distress, dispositional mindfulness, self-reported adherence frequency, and dropout rate. A total of 161 participants fully completed the study and were included in the final sample.
What was found
Well-being and dispositional mindfulness scores increased, and distress scores decreased within all four groups over time. However, the abstract reports no specific numerical data, effect sizes, or test statistics. There were no statistically significant between-group differences in well-being, distress, mindfulness, or practice frequency by meditation dose (~10 vs ~30 min) or type (sitting vs movement). Dropout rates did not differ by dose, but movement meditation groups experienced significantly higher dropout rates than sitting meditation groups regardless of dose.
Why it matters
Brief 10-minute daily mindfulness meditation may offer comparable short-term psychological benefits to longer 30-minute sessions in self-help formats, while movement-based practices appear to carry higher attrition.
Limits
The abstract provides no numerical data, confidence intervals, or p-values. The trial lacked an inactive or non-mindfulness active control group, lasted only 2 weeks, relied entirely on self-reported measures, used a completers-only analysis (n = 161) that introduces attrition bias, and was retrospectively registered.
Cited by
- supports Practicing meditation for 5 minutes a day for 30 days produces an increase on measures of well-being or flourishing.