Recent research shows that daily short mindfulness practices can significantly enhance mental health and encourage healthier lifestyles, with sustained benefits over time.
A recent study published in the British Journal of Health Psychology by researchers from the Universities of Bath and Southampton reveals that just 10 minutes of daily mindfulness practice can enhance well-being, alleviate depression and anxiety, and increase motivation to adopt healthier lifestyle habits, such as improved exercise, eating, and sleeping routines.
The research, which enrolled 1247 adults from 91 countries, demonstrates that brief daily mindfulness sessions, delivered through a free mobile app Medito, can have profound benefits.
Participants, most of whom had no prior mindfulness experience, were randomly allocated to a month-long mindfulness routine or a control condition—listening to excerpts from Alice in Wonderland. Daily mindfulness sessions included relaxation exercises, intention-setting, body scans, breath-focused attention, and self-reflection.
Significant Findings and Participant Feedback
The participants completed surveys on their mental health before starting the 30 days of mindfulness training and upon completing it. The results were striking. After mindfulness training participants using the mindfulness app reported:
- Reduced depression by 19.2% more than the control group.
- Improved well-being by 6.9% more.
- Decreased anxiety by 12.6% more.
- Attitudes to health got more positive by 7.1% over the control group.
- Behavioral intentions to look after health increased by 6.5% beyond control.
The positive effects of mindfulness were largely maintained after 30 days. In survey follow-ups one month later (Day 61) the mindfulness group showed sustained improvements in their well-being, depression, and attitudes, and even reported better sleep quality.
In their feedback, participants highlighted numerous benefits from the mindfulness practice: “Awareness, self-control, gratitude, I am more patient, and I take more joy from the present moment.”
“Clear mind. Feeling like everything’s under control and I’ll be able to do what I set my mind to.”
“Completing these meditation sessions has given me a better understanding of the function of my mind. They have helped me to gain a better insight into many things and shown me a different lens through which to look at the world. Words coming to mind: helpful, insightful, and motivational.”
Implications for Digital Health Interventions
Excitingly, this trial was one of the first to show that the well-being and mental health benefits of mindfulness could arise from the changes to lifestyle behaviors it encourages. This highlights the potential of mindfulness practice for promoting healthier living, such as exercising regularly, which is what the team are eager to research next.
The study was conducted by psychologist Masha Remskar, an expert in behavior change, mindfulness, and exercise based at the University of Bath. She said:
“This study highlights that even short, daily practices of mindfulness can offer benefits, making it a simple yet powerful tool for enhancing mental health.”
Of the findings linking mindfulness practice to healthier habits, Remskar said:
“It’s exciting to see the benefits of mindfulness extending beyond depression, well-being, and anxiety and into other health behaviors such as sleeping better and building stronger intentions to live a healthy lifestyle. Mindfulness builds the psychological skills you need to build healthy habits – we hope to show in future work that once you’ve got those skills you can use them to improve several health behaviors from exercising regularly to stopping smoking.”
Co-author Dr. Ben Ainsworth, who leads the Digital Intervention Group at the University of Southampton, added:
“The research underscores how digital technology – in this case, a freely available app – can help people integrate behavioral and psychological techniques into their lives, in a way that suits them. ”
Co-author Dr. Max Western from the University of Bath said:
“It is exciting to see that such a light-touch, affordable, intervention that has the potential to reach a large global audience can have an impact on healthy lifestyle behaviors. It is even more encouraging that these benefits were sustained after the mindfulness course ended, suggesting this practice can help build sustainable habits.”
Reference: “Mindfulness improves psychological health and supports health behaviour cognitions: Evidence from a pragmatic RCT of a digital mindfulness-based intervention” by Masha Remskar, Max J. Western and Ben Ainsworth, 21 August 2024, British Journal of Health Psychology.
DOI: 10.1111/bjhp.12745
The study was funded by the UKRI Economic and Social Research Council and done in collaboration with the Medito Foundation – a mindfulness non-profit dedicated to fostering a more mindful world. Medito has developed a mindfulness meditation app as a free alternative to well-known services requiring monthly subscription payments. Participants in the study completed Medito’s “30 Day Challenge,” but the Foundation had no involvement with data collection, analysis, or the scientific publication process.
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1 Comment
“Participants, most of whom had no prior mindfulness experience, were randomly allocated to a month-long mindfulness routine or a control condition—listening to excerpts from Alice in Wonderland. Daily mindfulness sessions included relaxation exercises, intention-setting, body scans, breath-focused attention, and self-reflection.”
I agree that mindfulness is beneficial, as has been known. However, spending time listening to someone reading Alice in Wonderland to you as the control treatment is not a good comparison. “The research, which enrolled 1247 adults from 91 countries…” This means 91 different cultural interpretations of Alice in Wonderland, read to them, presumably, in their own language.
I think a study should be done on the psychological impact of listening to someone reading Alice in Wonderland to people from 91 different cultures, in different languages. Will all cultures respond to this whimsical story the same way? Will they appreciate taking time out of their day for 30 days to listen to this story? Sounds like a depressing thing to do. Certainly not a good control group for an app that gives you mindfulness training. Perhaps a better control would be no app versus the app.