The Impact Of Meditation On Quality Of Life And Executive Functions

ObjectivesIn recent decades,meditation has drawn an increasing attention from researchers and the general public as an adjunctive therapy and a means to improve mental and physical health.People get better health and peace of mind through diverse forms of meditation training,and researchers use abundant experimental designs to find evidence that meditation promotes health and treats psychosomatic disorders.Previous studies mostly used short-term meditation training methods.Most of the research objects are various psychological diseases(such as anxiety,depression,post-traumatic stress disorder,etc.),various chronic diseases(such as hypertension and cardiovascular diseases),and the chronic pain caused by diseases.However,there are few studies on healthy people and there are few studies on the impact of long-term meditation on the quality of life.There are many studies abroad,domestic research has just started,and studies on the effects of long-term meditation on quality of life and individual executive function are even less.Therefore,this study focuses on long-term meditators to explore the impact of long-term practice meditation on quality of life and executive functions.The quality of life is related to all aspects of the individual's physical and mental health and is an overall assessment of life satisfaction and well-being.Executive function is a series of psychological processes that govern the emotional management,organization,planning and goals of individuals.Through the study of long-term meditators' life quality and executive functions,this paper analyzes the role of meditation on them,discusses the key factors influencing them,and then provides an effective empirical basis and advice for the public to practice meditation.MethodsIn this study,we used the control study,the cross-sectional study and the randomized controlled study respectively.The control study consisted of long-term meditators(Stable practice meditation for more than 2 years)and demographic matched non-meditate participants to compare quality of life and executive functions.The cross-sectional study explorer the factors of meditation lifestyle that related to the quality of life of long-term meditators,and discussed key factors that influence the quality of life of meditators.The randomized controlled study of college students as the research object.The experimental group and the control group were set up to carry out longitudinal follow-up surveys at 0,5,8 and 12 weeks of meditation training,and also to study their quality of life and executive functions.Results1.Scores of General Health(78.33 VS 67.62,p<0.001),vitality(79.82 VS 72.71,p<0.001),social functioning(86.61 VS 82.75,p=0.024),role limitation-emotional(75.28 VS 65.33,p =0.015),mental health(78.93 VS 72.97,p<0.001)subscale of the long-term meditation group were significantly higher than the control group.And Physical Component Summary score(84.50 VS 80.42,p=0.004),Mental Component Summary scores(80.16 VS 73.44,p<0.001),and total scores(82.33 VS 76.93,p<0.001)also have significant differences between the groups.2.The mean practice time per week,the frequency of mental silence and mean mental silence time per week have significant positive correlations with Physical Component Summary score,Mental Component Summary scores,and total scores.Mental Component Summary scores(83.55 VS 76.44,p =0.003)and total scores(85.71 VS 78.77,p =0.001)were significantly higher when meditator practice mental silence meditation more than 40 minutes a week.Mental Component Summary scores(81.94 VS 76.05,p =0.019)and total scores(83.70 VS 79.19,p =0.031)were significantly higher when they have experienced at least 2 times of mental silence per week.3.Long-term meditators had significantly smaller attentional blink magnitude than controls(T2short condition:0.732 VS 0.606,p=0.012).And,the response time of Stroop task long-term meditators were better than the controls(congruent condition:706.78 VS 742.10,p=0.267;incongruent condition:827.75 VS 861.31,p=0.354),but there were no significant differences observed.4.In the randomized controlled trials,after meditation training,the magnitude of attentional blink of the meditation group was significantly smaller than that of the control group(T2short condition,T2 accuracy:F(1,54)=4.595,p=0.037),and the Stroop performance was significantly better than that of the control group(accuracy of congruent condition:F(1,56)=6.459,p=0.014;reaction time of congruent condition:F(1,56)=3.691,p=0.06;accuracy of incongruent condition:F(1,56)=4.446,p=0.039;reaction time of incongruent condition:F(1,56)=4.383,p=0.041).Pre-and post-test comparison of quality of life,the vitality scores(59.24 VS 68.57,p=0.040),role limitation-emotional scores(43.43 VS 53.44,p=0.028),and mental health scores(58.18 VS 66.58,p=0.036)of meditation group were significantly improved after the 8-weeks meditation training,as well as the Mental Component Summary scores(59.72 VS 68.57,p = 0.013)and total scores(69.29 VS 76.52,p = 0.021).There was no difference between the control group before and after the test.Conclusions1.Meditation training can improve the quality of life,especially in terms of mental health.2.Factors that influence Meditation are related to the experience of meditation.3.Meditation training can improve the updating and inhibition of the brain executive functions.