A team of neurophysiologists at NIMHANS has initiated a study to understand dreams and brain activity among regular meditators
A team of neurophysiologists has started to record and research the sleep patterns of more than 100 regular practitioners of vipassana meditation at Bangalore’s National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (Nimhans). Led by Dr Bindu M Kutty, this is the third phase of the sleep study, which aims to examine REM (rapid eye movement) sleep as well as the dream state in control and experiment groups.
The first two stages of Dr Kutty’s sleep study, from 2000-2012 and from 2012-2015, were the first time that researchers in India studied somnambulic architecture — ie a complete pattern of a person’s sleep throughout the night. Dr Kutty’s research team had then found that senior vipassana meditators (with five years of daily meditation practise) demonstrated ideal sleep organisation, given that they had enhanced slow-wave sleep, ie deep or restorative sleep, enhanced secretion of hormones important for biological functions, as well as enhanced parasympathetic function in the brain. They’d also earlier studied brain activity in vipassana meditators as they performed cognitive tasks.
Now, in the third phase, the researchers want to study experience dependence plasticity — the ability of the adult brain to be amenable to changes – in meditators. “We will also be studying various aspects of dream, including dream physiology, which nobody has studied before,” says Dr Kutty, who heads the department of neurophysiology.
Dr Kutty and her team of five — who, incidentally, are all regular vipassana meditators — will look at the effect of meditation “from a sleeping perspective as well as from the waking perspective, so we understand what meditation does and how it can be achieved”. The three year study is funded by the government of India’s Department of Science and Technology under its Science and Technology of Yoga and Meditation (abbreviated as SATYAM) project.
About vipassana meditation
Vipassana is the practical essence of the teachings of Gautama Buddha
Vipassana meditation, as taught by the late SN Goenka, in the tradition of Sayagyi U Ba Khin, is described as a “process of mental purification through self-observation”.
It involves being mindful of the breath, thoughts, feelings and action. For more, log on to www.dhamma.org
Many scientific studies have established a direct link between regular mediation and reduced stress, better focus and improved memory.