Changes in Subjective Time and Self during Meditation.
Damisela Linares Gutierrez, Stefan Schmidt, Karin Meissner, Marc Wittmann
Biology July 26, 2022 DOI: 10.3390/biology11081116 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Within-subject experimental study Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Sample size | 22 |
| Population | Experienced meditators who practiced meditation techniques emphasizing present-moment awareness, with an average of 20 years of practice |
| Interventions | Meditation Reading |
| Duration | 20 min meditation session and 20 min reading session |
| Topics | Meditation |
| Keywords | Time perception Sense of self Present-moment awareness |
| Key findings | During meditation compared with reading, participants reported that time passed more quickly, that they paid less attention to time, and that their body boundaries felt less salient. Heart-rate measures showed a mixed pattern of increased sympathetic and parasympathetic activity, and breathing intervals were prolonged. No significant differences between conditions appeared on the metronome task. The authors describe this as probably the first quantitative study to link altered time experience during meditation with the sense of the bodily self. |
Abstract
This study examined the effects of meditative states in experienced meditators on present-moment awareness, subjective time, and self-awareness while assessing meditation-induced changes in heart-rate variability and breathing rate. A sample of 22 experienced meditators who practiced meditation techniques stressing awareness of the present moment (average 20 years of practice) filled out subjective scales pertaining to sense of time and the bodily self and accomplished a metronome task as an operationalization of present-moment awareness before and after a 20 min meditation session (experimental condition) and a 20 min reading session (control condition) according to a within-subject design. A mixed pattern of increased sympathetic and parasympathetic activity was found during meditation regarding heart-rate measures. Breathing intervals were prolonged during meditation. Participants perceived their body boundaries as less salient during meditation than while reading the story; they also felt time passed more quickly and they paid less attention to time during meditation. No significant differences between conditions became apparent for the metronome task. This is probably the first quantitative study to show how the experience of time during a meditation session is altered together with the sense of the bodily self.
Comparable studies
Other experimental studies on meditation, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| The benefits of being present: Mindfulness and its role in psychological well-being. Cancer patients (clinical intervention study) | 2003 | Mixed methods: scale development, correlational, quasi-experimental, laboratory, experience-sampling, and clinical intervention study | |
| Loving-kindness meditation increases social connectedness. | 2008 | Controlled laboratory experiment | |
| Mindfulness and mind-wandering: Finding convergence through opposing constructs. | 2012 | Two studies: correlational study and experimental study | |
| Mental Training Enhances Attentional Stability: Neural and Behavioral Evidence | 2009 | Experimental study | |
| Mindfulness meditation and substance use in an incarcerated population. Incarcerated population | 2006 | Quasi-experimental with treatment-as-usual control condition |
Citations in the library
Cited by 17
- Classification schemes of altered states of consciousness. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews August 1, 2025
- Mindfulness, cognition, and long-term meditators: Toward a science of advanced meditation. Imaging Neuroscience 2025
- Change in Time Perception Following the Place of Pre-Existence Technique International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health February 16, 2023
- Meditation-Induced Self-Boundary Flexibility and Prosociality: A MEG and Behavioral Measures Study. Brain Sciences November 26, 2024
- Meditation in the third-person perspective modulates minimal self and heartbeat-evoked potentials. Neuroimage July 1, 2025
and 12 more in the library
Cites 21
- Psychedelics, Meditation, and Self-Consciousness Frontiers in Psychology September 4, 2018
- Effective connectivity changes in LSD-induced altered states of consciousness in humans. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences January 28, 2019
- Alterations in the sense of time, space and body in the Mindfulness-trained brain: A neurophenomenologically-guided MEG study Frontiers in Psychology May 22, 2014
- Self-Boundary Dissolution in Meditation: A Phenomenological Investigation. Brain Sciences June 21, 2021
- Awareness of the passage of time and self-consciousness: What do meditators report? PsyCh Journal March 1, 2019
and 16 more in the library