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The Effects of Self-Guided Meditation and Napping on Memory Consolidation in Humans

Mohammad Dastgheib

January 30, 2020 DOI: 10.31237/osf.io/8t9uq (opens in new tab)

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Study at a glance

AI-extracted from the abstract
Characteristics Experimental study
Interventions Napping Quiet waking (self-guided meditation)
Duration 60-minute interval
Topics Meditation
Citations 1
Key findings The thesis suggests that memory consolidation may not be a sleep-specific phenomenon, with mindfulness meditation appearing more advantageous than a short nap for declarative memory. It also reports that slow-wave sleep (SWS) had significant effects on non-declarative memory retention: nappers who did not enter SWS showed noticeable performance enhancements compared with those who did, suggesting SWS may play a disadvantageous role in procedural memory consolidation, possibly due to sleep inertia.

Abstract

Master's thesisNumerous studies have reported that, compared to an equivalent period of wakefulness,post-training sleep (overnight or daytime naps) benefits memory consolidation (Diekelmann & Born, 2010; Mednick, Nakayama, & Stickgold, 2003; Plihal & Born, 1999; Walker et al.,2003). However, most investigations have employed various forms of “active wakefulness” (e.g., sensorimotor and cognitive tasks) as a comparison condition for sleep, while few studies have examined the role of “quiet wakefulness” in memory consolidation, even though some of the EEG oscillations during quiet waking resemble those present in sleep (e.g., increased activity in the theta-alpha range) (Brokaw et al., 2016). This study aimed to examine the consolidation of declarative (word-pair associates) andnon-declarative (marble maze visuo-motor task) learning over a 60-minutes time interval (with continuous EEG monitoring) filled with either (A) napping; (B) active-waking (watchinga video); or (C) quiet-waking (self-guided meditation).The results of the current study suggested that memory consolidation may not be a sleepspecific-phenomenon. In fact, mindfulness meditation appeared to be more advantageous than a short nap for the consolidation of declarative memories. This study also found that SWSexerts significant effects on the retention of non-declarative memory. For nappers, the absence of SWS resulted in noticeable performance enhancements compared to participants who entered SWS. Thus, it is possible that SWS plays a disadvantageous role in the consolidationof procedural memory. It is thought that sleep inertia caused by SWS is partly responsible for the impairments in tasks procedural memory. The findings of current study contribute to the understanding of memory consolidation and provide insights about the role of waking states for future studies.

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

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