Meditation makes me sick: Meditation and sensitivity to
parasympathetic nervous system

CIGÁN, Jakub, Silvie KOTHEROVÁ, Milan SEPŠI, Lenka KRAJČÍKOVÁ and Mária HOLICKÁ. Meditation makes me sick: Meditation and sensitivity to parasympathetic nervous system. In MUR: MÓZG – UMYSŁ – RELIGIA, Krakow, 28.2-1.3.2015. 2015.

Other formats: BibTeX LaTeX RIS

TY  - CONF
ID  - 1347048
AU  - Cigán, Jakub - Kotherová, Silvie - Sepši, Milan - Krajčíková, Lenka - Holická, Mária
PY  - 2015
TI  - Meditation makes me sick: Meditation and sensitivity to parasympathetic nervous system
KW  - meditation
KW  - nausea
KW  - health
KW  - autonomous nervous system
KW  - experiment
N2  - Meditation has been studied by cognitive scientists, psychologists as well as by scholars of religion for decades. The study though has been focused mostly on positive effects of different meditation practices and these have become a part of a medical treatment or psychotherapy (Ospina et al. 2009). But what about the negative aspects of meditation practices well-known among meditation teachers and practitioners? These problems as nausea and head spinning especially common for beginners are in a scientific literature fairly omitted. We will present an experimental study which takes initial steps towards probing basic negative aspects of meditation practices and represents broader interdisciplinary cooperation across medicine, social sciences and humanities (Olex et al. 2013). Meditation in general stimulates parasympathetic nervous system and leads to relaxed states. Although sensitive individuals unfamiliar with meditation practices might have extreme response to parasympathetic nervous system stimulation. They might feel sick and nauseous during meditation. The objective of the study was to monitor individuals during exercising simple meditation breathing technique and determine the causes of extreme physiological response connected to autonomous nervous system activity. We presume meditation slows down a heart rate, decreases variability of a heart rate, decreases turbulence of heart rate and deceleration capacity. We presume that susceptible individuals will respond to meditation by strong irritation of the parasympathetic system and thus increase neurovegetative response – change of blood pressure and heart rate profile. The key is a continual monitoring of basic physiological functions of participants during baseline and meditation as a body surface temperature, arterial blood pressure, respiratory rate, oxygen saturation and heart activity (EKG) accompanied by standardized nausea questionnaire (Muth et al. 1996).
ER  -

Basic information
Original name	Meditation makes me sick: Meditation and sensitivity to parasympathetic nervous system
Authors	CIGÁN, Jakub (703 Slovakia, guarantor, belonging to the institution), Silvie KOTHEROVÁ (203 Czech Republic, belonging to the institution), Milan SEPŠI (203 Czech Republic, belonging to the institution), Lenka KRAJČÍKOVÁ (703 Slovakia, belonging to the institution) and Mária HOLICKÁ (703 Slovakia, belonging to the institution).
Edition	MUR: MÓZG – UMYSŁ – RELIGIA, Krakow, 28.2-1.3.2015, 2015.

Other information
Original language	English
Type of outcome	Presentations at conferences
Field of Study	60304 Religious studies
Country of publisher	Poland
Confidentiality degree	is not subject to a state or trade secret
RIV identification code	RIV/00216224:14210/15:00090119
Organization unit	Faculty of Arts
Keywords (in Czech)	meditace; nevolnost; zdraví; autonomní nervový systém; experiment
Keywords in English	meditation; nausea; health; autonomous nervous system; experiment
Tags	International impact, Reviewed
Changed by	Changed by: Mgr. Jakub Cigán, Ph.D., učo 165684. Changed: 14/1/2019 15:30.

Abstract

Meditation has been studied by cognitive scientists, psychologists as well as by scholars of religion for decades. The study though has been focused mostly on positive effects of different meditation practices and these have become a part of a medical treatment or psychotherapy (Ospina et al. 2009). But what about the negative aspects of meditation practices well-known among meditation teachers and practitioners? These problems as nausea and head spinning especially common for beginners are in a scientific literature fairly omitted. We will present an experimental study which takes initial steps towards probing basic negative aspects of meditation practices and represents broader interdisciplinary cooperation across medicine, social sciences and humanities (Olex et al. 2013). Meditation in general stimulates parasympathetic nervous system and leads to relaxed states. Although sensitive individuals unfamiliar with meditation practices might have extreme response to parasympathetic nervous system stimulation. They might feel sick and nauseous during meditation. The objective of the study was to monitor individuals during exercising simple meditation breathing technique and determine the causes of extreme physiological response connected to autonomous nervous system activity. We presume meditation slows down a heart rate, decreases variability of a heart rate, decreases turbulence of heart rate and deceleration capacity. We presume that susceptible individuals will respond to meditation by strong irritation of the parasympathetic system and thus increase neurovegetative response – change of blood pressure and heart rate profile. The key is a continual monitoring of basic physiological functions of participants during baseline and meditation as a body surface temperature, arterial blood pressure, respiratory rate, oxygen saturation and heart activity (EKG) accompanied by standardized nausea questionnaire (Muth et al. 1996).

Links
EE2.3.20.0048, research and development project	Name: Laboratoř pro experimentální výzkum náboženství

PrintDisplayed: 20/4/2024 02:07

Meditation makes me sick: Meditation and sensitivity to parasympathetic nervous system

Other applications