How often should I meditate? A randomized trial examining the role of meditation frequency when total amount of meditation is held constant.
Level 2 - randomized trial
Individual randomized controlled trial
PubMed 38376930 · doi:10.1037/cou0000725
What was done
Undergraduates with clinically elevated depression and/or anxiety (N = 351) were randomized to either a massed practice condition (one 20-min session per day) or a distributed practice condition (two 10-min sessions per day) during a 2-week compassion-based meditation intervention delivered via the Healthy Minds Program app. Psychological distress (primary outcome; composite of depression and anxiety), experiential avoidance, fear of missing out, loneliness, and self-compassion were assessed pre- and post-intervention, alongside daily ratings of distress, loneliness, and informal practice.
What was found
Pooled across conditions, participants showed significant pre-post improvements across all outcomes (|d| = 0.12-0.63, p <= .010) and significant trajectories of daily improvement for distress and loneliness (p <= .010). However, no statistically significant between-group differences were observed on any pre-post or daily measures (ps = .158-.729).
Why it matters
When daily meditation time is held constant at 20 minutes, splitting practice into multiple shorter sessions does not reduce its benefit, supporting flexible scheduling for app users.
Limits
The intervention was brief (2 weeks), conducted exclusively in an undergraduate sample, and lacked a non-active or waitlist control group to differentiate intervention effects from the passage of time or expectancy.