Meditation app use is generally low: half of users engage for 16 minutes or less in the first month after download, and fewer than 20% continue past 14 days. Intended use far exceeds actual use. Higher engagement is associated with expectation match, expectations for anxiety and attention, conscientiousness, satisfaction with life, and well-being, while neuroticism, perceived stress, psychological distress, and lower quality of life are linked to lower engagement. Readiness to change uniquely predicts higher engagement. Acute stress motivates use, but chronic stress disrupts it. Engagement is best when experiences match expectations and users are prepared to change.
Most people who download meditation apps use them very little. In a survey of 536 recent users across five English-speaking countries, those who were more educated, more open to new experiences, and who held stronger beliefs that meditation apps would help them were more likely to engage regularly. Readiness to change, expectations for sleep and thriving, and perceived app quality and appeal were also linked to greater use. Age and higher education were among the strongest predictors of engagement. The findings suggest that user characteristics and attitudes toward the app matter more than mental health symptoms for determining how much someone uses a meditation app.
Cannabis, the most widely used illicit drug, is often consumed during adolescence. Its active component, THC, disrupts glutamate balance and synaptic plasticity in the nucleus accumbens (NAc). A specific group of astrocytes in the NAc, linked to the ventral hippocampus-NAc circuit, is critical for these effects. Using the AstroLight tool, researchers found that THC increases calcium activity and glutamate release in these astrocytes. This glutamate release depends on p38α signaling, as mice lacking astrocytic p38α showed no such changes. Blocking THC-induced calcium activity in this astrocyte ensemble prevented spatial learning and synaptic plasticity impairments, highlighting these astrocytes as potential therapeutic targets.