Psychosomatic Health

Here’s How Sensory Deprivation Therapies Might Enhance Cognitive Health and Performance.

I explain the value of perceptual isolation and introduce flotation tanks as an alternative therapy for psychosomatic health.

Purpose of the Article

This article defines the sensory deprivation concept and related therapies and introduces the use of flotation tanks in health and wellness centers.

I summarize my research and experience with this unique therapy that might contribute to cognitive health for some people.

This post is not health advice. My goal is to inform, inspire, and create awareness for these proven therapies based on my research and experience.

Inspiration for the Post

Since I emphasized the importance of stress in health articles and created awareness of alternative therapies backed up by science, readers showed interest in my research, perspectives, and experience with sensory deprivation therapies for cognitive health.

Thus, I decided to share my findings in a short article with practical takeaway points to satisfy the needs of my content subscribers.

First, I’d like to introduce the concept so that therapeutic solutions make sense in the subsequent sections.

What Does Sensory Deprivation Therapy Mean, and How Is It Served?

I heard the term first time when I was working in NATO in the early 1980s. Then, I came across sensory deprivation therapies in the mid-1980s when I started learning about the impact of stress on the human brain as part of my postgraduate studies.

However, this type of therapy has existed since the 1950s. The first device, called Sensory Deprivation Therapy Tank, was designed by an American medical doctor, neuroscientist, and inventor Dr. John Cunningham Lilly, in 1954. Dr. Lily invented numerous valuable apparatus that I plan to cover in my future articles.

American Psychological Association published a comprehensive literature review in 1989, annotating available medical reports in a review titled “Perceptual isolation, sensory deprivation, and rest: Moving introductory psychology texts out of the 1950s.”

During my leadership studies, observing leaders in large corporate organizations whose executives used these therapies for themselves and their talent to prevent burnout.

Leadership literature also informs that too much sensory information adversely affects leaders' performance. During my studies, one of the measures was to reduce physical and mental distractions as much as possible.

So, sensory deprivation is not a new-age idea and is not a controversial concept. These therapies have a robust scientific, and the devices have a solid technological background. These products and services also have had a long commercial background since their inception.

In simple terms, sensory deprivation refers to reducing stimuli from our senses, such as coming through our eyes (visual), ears (audio), mouth (taste), nose (smell), and physical structure (touch).

We all perform sensory deprivation to some extent in our daily lives. For example, like many people, I use eye masks, blindfolds, and earmuffs while sleeping to reduce noise and light. Thermal protection is also used to reduce the effects of cold and heat in our homes.

Another alternative term for sensory deprivation in the literature is “Reduced Environmental Stimulation Therapy”. These therapies are shortened as Floatation-REST.

The literature also covers the term perceptual isolation (e.g., Ganzfeld effect) to investigate the psychological aspects of the concept in a different context but relevant therapies.

The Ganzfeld effect deals with a constant and uniform stimulus rather than totally removing all stimuli, which is impossible for living beings. In my perspective, this effect is more realistic to achieve.

There are even clinical trials on the Ganzfeld effect on sleep improvement that I plan to cover in another article.

To conclude this section, sensory deprivation therapies include both physical and mental interventions to create desired effects. I introduce its widespread implementation in the next section.

What is an Isolation Tank?

After the theories of sensory deprivation or perceptual isolation were established, commercial companies created tools such as sensory deprivation or isolation tanks, removing the perceptual connection with the external world in a designed tank with mineral water and oxygen only.

Isolation tanks include water in body temperature and a substantial amount of Epsom Salts that I introduced in an article titled Here’s Why Epsom Salts Look Valuable Molecules for Immunity.

Different vendors created various configurations of isolation tanks. They include floating pods with no sound. However, some tanks initially include light sounds or pleasant background music to prepare the clients for absolute silence. Clients using these tanks lie down supine position.

Using this tank in his workplace, Joe Rogan made a podcast in 2018 interviewing Dr. Rhonda Patrick to explain some scientific concepts related to the effects of isolation tanks. You can watch and listen to the podcast on YouTube.

Use Cases for Sensory Deprivation Therapy

There are various use cases for sensory deprivation or perceptual isolation concepts. The primary use case is stress reduction to improve physical and mental health.

These therapies can reduce both physical and mental stress. Some therapists use it to improve sleep, reduce the effects of depression, and as an aid to quitting smoking.

Most people use these therapies as relaxation tools. Spiritual people use them to explore consciousness with absolute silence and lack of external stimuli.

Benefits of Sensory Deprivation Therapy

Overall, the literature indicates that these therapies can reduce stress, anxiety, pain, and depression. They can improve cognitive abilities, perceptions, mood, and skin conditions.

Based on my literature review, I’d like to provide some health benefits of sensory deprivation or perceptual isolation. However, first I want to highlight an important study that information on the Internet could be misleading. Therefore, we need to focus on credible sources.

An analysis of online floating services published in the European Journal of Integrative Medicine analyzed documents related to these tanks “in five overarching themes: (1) Physiological changes, (2) Alleviation of medical conditions, (3) Relaxation, (4) Personal growth and enhancement, and (5) Altered states of consciousness.”

The study concluded that “Although the advertisements described many evidence-based effects resulting from floating, information tended to be exaggerated, and could be misleading to consumers.”

Anxiety is a significant problem for cognitive health. Therefore, I specifically investigated this aspect of sensory deprivation therapies.

This 2018 study titled Examining the short-term anxiolytic and antidepressant effect of Floatation-REST concluded that:

“Irrespective of diagnosis, Floatation-REST substantially reduced state anxiety. Moreover, participants reported significant reductions in stress, muscle tension, pain, depression, and negative affect, accompanied by a significant improvement in mood characterized by increases in serenity, relaxation, happiness, and overall well-being.”

Another scientific study published in BMC is titled “Promising effects of treatment with flotation-REST (restricted environmental stimulation technique) as an intervention for a generalized anxiety disorder: a randomized controlled pilot trial.” This clinical trial concluded that:

“Significant change (37 %) in the treatment group reached full remission at post-treatment. Significant beneficial effects were also found for sleep difficulties, difficulties in emotional regulation, and depression, while the treatment had ambiguous or non-existent effects on pathological worry and mindfulness. All improved outcome variables at post-treatment, except for depression, were maintained at a 6-month follow. No negative effects were found.”

This 2014 clinical study titled “Beneficial effects of treatment with sensory isolation in flotation-tank as a preventive health-care intervention — a randomized controlled pilot trial” produced results such as:

“Stress, depression, anxiety, and worst pain were significantly decreased, whereas optimism and sleep quality significantly increased for the flotation-REST group. No significant results for the control group were seen. There was also a significant correlation between mindfulness in daily life and the degree of altered states of consciousness during the relaxation in the flotation tank.”

I also came across studies related to athletes. For example, a study published in the Performance Enhancement & Health titled “Flotation restricted environmental stimulation therapy and napping on mood state and muscle soreness in elite athletes: A novel recovery strategy” concluded:

“FLOAT may be an effective tool for both physical and psychological recovery following training in elite athletes. Furthermore, napping in combination with FLOAT may provide additional benefits to enhance certain mood-state variables.”

Conclusion and Takeaways

Stress and anxiety play a critical role in our cognitive health. As I documented in multiple articles, stress is triggering and aggravating factor for neural and mental disorders.

Sensory deprivation therapy is a unique alternative medicine approach focussing on stress reduction in the body and mind. It is a holistic approach because the therapy sessions are psychosomatic, including the body and mind.

While the flotation tanks provide a physical environment that removes external stimuli, the technique is mainly based on mindfulness practices, such as putting the clients in a meditative mode.

For me, the essential contributor of these tanks is the water with Epsom Salts which relaxes muscles and reduces physical stress. Epsom salts include magnesium sulfate.

There are no conclusive scientific studies on Epsom salts related to increasing magnesium in the body, but I came across many anecdotes and personally experienced the benefits for decades. I still use Epsom salt baths at home.

I only introduced floating tanks as popular sensory deprivation therapy. However, meditation in a quiet room also can be used for this purpose.

From my reviews, observations, and personal experience, I firmly believe that sensory deprivation or perceptual isolation by reducing environmental stimulation can allow the body and mind to heal.

Some biohackers use medication and psychedelics to enable sensory deprivation. I plan to cover them in another article.

In the meantime, investing in these tanks is an option. Unfortunately, they are costly for many of us. However, they are accessible via health and fitness centers in some countries. Some centers provide these services via a subscription model, which is worth investigating.

If we don’t have access to these services, we can still create an environment with sensory deprivation at home, reducing noise and visual stimuli. We can also use baths with Epsom salt at body temperature. However, the critical tool is meditation, in my experience.

By meditating regularly, we can improve cognitive health and performance. For example, meditating three times every day has rewired my brain for joy and significantly contributed to my physical and mental health. Therefore, I pass along this tacit knowledge via my articles.

I also perceive fasting as a type of sensory deprivation, as refraining from food reduces sensations from the digestive system. Therefore, I fast intermittently every day (eating one meal a day) and occasionally fast long-term to intensify autophagy and mitophagy to lower the risks of cognitive decline and increase cognitive reserves.

Thank you for reading my perspectives. I wish you a healthy and happy life.

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Thank you for reading my perspectives. I wish you a healthy and happy life.

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