The Power of Floating

Imagine being a 24-year-old man, naked and floating in a pod, inducing complete sensory deprivation and being immersed in what I can only describe as adult sized womb. Sound terrifying? Well, today I did just that, but alas, it was not scary in the slightest and instead it ending up being both relaxing and transformative.

To my surprise, I learnt that floatation therapy has been around for around 60 years. It is yet however, to become mainstream. I for one, knew nothing about it.

A few weeks back, I was browsing the web looking for something interesting and new that a friend and I could try out. This is when I came across ‘Float Works’ in Vauxhall, London. Intrigued, I booked us one ‘float’.

I arrived at 9 am and was overcome by a sense of tranquillity. The receptionist positively oozed zen, making my friend and I feel at ease; this was particularly reassuring when trying something so new and unusual.

He showed each of us to our private room where a large white pod filled with salt water greeted me. He explained its features and left us to shower and hop in. Normally I would be nervous, but the staff were so friendly and positive that any residual nerves evaporated.

I took off my clothes and lay down in the water. I felt the tension in my body melt away. Turning the pod’s lights off, I was lost in complete darkness, left to focus on my own thoughts for a full hour.

After the fifteen minutes of quiet music (to ‘ease you in’) I lost any sense of time. I began to fade in and out of active thought, managing in the main to clear my mind. The water, being perfect room temperature, meant that I wasn’t able to tell which parts of me were in the water and which were out. I focused on my breath and could hear only my heartbeat; I had completely succumbed to the pod.

The hour was up in what felt like minutes. Before entering, I was convinced that this whole process might drag on, but instead I was shocked at how quickly the time flew!

After the float, I felt happier, lighter and rejuvenated. I made my way up to the ‘relaxation room’ and poured myself a complementary herbal tea, and pondered the immense and positive impact of the float. I am a massage addict, but let me tell you, this float session was more wellness inducing than any massage I have ever received. It was special absolutely worth the £50 price tag.

I’m giving this 5/5 on the happiness scale.

This article originally appeared on huffingtonpost and was written by Nader Dehdasht

Float Therapy: Mental and Physical Relief From Chronic Pain

Chronic pain (anytime) in the summertime can be a double whammy of discomfort. Those suffering from chronic pain find that relaxation and sleep is even harder to come by due to the heat, and lack of sleep can intensify pain. It’s a vicious circle. There are ways to beat the heat in the summer, including keeping a cool, dark bedroom for sleeping, exercising in the morning when it is coolest, and eating refreshing summer fruits and veggies to keep your internal fires cool.

In addition to those tips, many chronic pain sufferers find relief through meditation.

One way to get your zen on is by visiting a float tank, also known as a sensory deprivation tank. Flotation REST (reduced environmental stimuli therapy) was developed in the 1950s by John C. Lilly, M.D. and uses a water-filled tank that is approximately the size of a bed and heated to skin temperature. The water is saturated with Epsom salts so that the patient can float without any effort.

Patients remove their clothes, enter the tank, turn off the lights, and relax. The idea is that this sensation of zero stimuli will help to focus inward, eliminating distractions and calming the mind and body. The Fibromyalgia Floatation Project (FFP) believes that spending an hour in a float tank will help sufferers reduce pain significantly.

Some of the potential benefits for fibromyalgia include:

• Eliminates stress, or improves ability to handle stress better, by lowering cortisol
• Promotes deep rest, eliminating fatigue
• Aids in combating insomnia
• Improves focus and concentration
• Increases dopamine production, the “feel good” hormone produced by the brain
• Reduces pain by relaxation and hormone production

When external stimuli are eliminated, the fight-or-flight response is deactivated. This response is the cornerstone of the stress response, and many chronic pain sufferers are constantly in this state of stress as their body reacts to pain. Chronic stress increases pain intensity. Eliminating or coping with stress better can help decrease sensitivity to pain.

• Manages arthritis, back pain, sports injuries, and pregnancy discomforts
• Improves chronic pain conditions
• Relieves pain and emotional stress for fibromyalgia patients
• Creates an ideal environment for pain relief with weightlessness and lack of effort
• Floating provides natural traction for a wide range of spine-related injuries

These claims are supported by research done by Thomas H. Fine, associate professor in the Department of Psychiatry of the Medical College of Ohio, and Roderick A Borrie, Ph.D., clinical psychologist at South Oaks Hospital, Amityville, New York. They found that:

“[F]lotation REST can have an important role at several stages of the pain management process. By reducing both muscle tension and pain in a relatively short time and without effort on the part of the patient, flotation provides a dramatic demonstration of the benefits of relaxation. Relief is immediate and, although temporary, offers promise of further relief from REST and other relaxation-based strategies. Symptom reduction gained from flotation can increase a patient’s motivation and interest in the remainder of the therapy plan. Pain patients generally come into treatment feeling suspicious and skeptical, requiring a clear demonstration that they can be helped.”

In their research, they found extraordinary benefits for chronic pain patients. Most of the patients that utilized flotation REST suffered from chronic pain for longer than six months and floated from one to 16 sessions. Overall, they reported a reduction in pain that averaged 31.3%, with the highest level of relief in the upper back at 63.6%, and the lowest in the legs at 15.3%. This seems to be a “clear demonstration” that float tanks help with chronic pain.

A small-scale 2012 study also showed the profound benefits of float tanks. 81 volunteers with fibromyalgia were given three free float sessions in exchange for feedback on a questionnaire.  Across the board, participants reported an immediate drop in pain and an increase in well-being. They also indicated a drop in pain over the course of the three sessions, so that their pain levels when they entered the tank were lower than they had been when they entered in the previous sessions.

This result speaks to the long-term potential for pain reduction.

In addition to chronic pain, advocates of flotation therapy also tout its benefits for creativity and excellence in sports. Researchers Oshin Vartanian of the University of Toronto and Peter Suedfeld of the University of British Columbia found that musicians who floated in the tank for one hour per week for four weeks showed better technical ability at the end of the research. The researchers compared two-minute recordings before and after from the study participants and the control group and found “a significant difference between the treatment and comparison groups on technical ability, but not on any other dimension.”

College athletes benefited from REST also. Multiple studies have found that when combined with imagery, athletes from gymnasts to professional tennis players to collegiate basketball players improved performance measurably over the long term.

This article originally appeared on paindoctor.com