Heart Rate Variability Changes during Sahaja Yoga Meditation
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.37506/ijop.v7i4.105Keywords:
Heart Rate Variability (HRV), Non-Yoga group, Sahaja Yoga Meditation, Yoga group.Abstract
Background & Objectives
Yoga and meditation is now widely accepted world wide as an effective tool to combat stress. Heart Rate Variability (HRV) is a noninvasive tool to measure sympathetic and parasympathetic function of the autonomic nervous system. Yoga, by modulating stress, has shown to decrease the activity of sympathetic component of autonomic nervous system and enhance parasympathetic component. Only few studies have compared HRV at baseline with HRV during or after single session of yoga. Thus, this study was undertaken with the objectives to compare HRV changes of Sahaja Yoga Meditators in resting state with their Meditation state and to compare these changes with HRV changes in the control group in resting and meditation mimicking state.
Method
A prospective randomized controlled study was conducted. The study group comprised of 30 randomly selected long term Sahaja yoga mediators and a control group of 30 subjects with no prior practice of any kind of meditation. HRV was recorded in both the groups in normal resting state, during meditation (yoga group) and with eyes closed (mimicking meditation in control group).
Results
Study showed decrease in LF (sympathetic activity) increase in HF (parasympathetic activity) and decrease in LF/HF ratio thus implying a more relaxed, parasympathetic dominant state, in the yoga group during meditation.
Conclusion
The study shows Sahaja Yoga meditation leads to a parasympathetic dominant (relaxed) state and thus can be used as an effective mind body technique to combat stress.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright Ownership: Authors retain copyright ownership of their work after publication in IJOP. However, they grant the journal an exclusive Creative Commons license.
Creative Commons License: The authors grant IJOP the right to exclusively apply a Creative Commons license to their work upon publication. This license permits use, distribution, and reproduction of the work in any medium, provided that the original work and its source are properly cited. The specific license applied is Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0), which allows for attribution, non-commercial use, and derivative works.
Editorial Research: Authors grant the journal the right to analyze information obtained from submitted manuscripts for editorial research purposes. This analysis aims to improve the peer-review process, teaching, and training activities.
Warranties: Authors warrant that their work is original, contains no libelous statements, is lawful, and does not infringe upon any copyright, trademark, patent, or proprietary rights of others. Authors agree to indemnify the editors against any costs, expenses, and damages arising from any breach of this warranty.
Views and Opinions: The views and opinions expressed in the article are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the journal.