29 June 2018, by i-sopod
Anette Kjellgren of the Karlstad University, Sweden reported in her 2010 peer reviewed paper on 25 floatation tank users as follows:
“Clients reported generally improved sleep during the course of treatment, in particular, during nights that followed flotation-REST. The clients experienced an effortlessly relaxed state while lying in bed, as well as a deliberate and unintentional ability to influence the level of relaxation by imitating the resting body position experienced in the tank and composing their respiration. The quality of sleep was enhanced by a deeper, more tranquil sleep, with fewer awakenings during the night, and a sense of renewed energy upon awakening in the morning.
Examples: “and I do not sleep during the day, I do not need that anymore” / “I fall asleep, I have never had problems with that, but I have had my TV as a kind of reason to wake up, so that I can break or distract my thoughts with the TV. I have not needed to do that since I started here” / “Before I started here, my sleep was a disaster. I would go to bed and I was really tired so I did fall asleep. But I would wake up after an hour and be totally awake” / “I fall asleep faster. I do not have to lie there and wait for the sleep to come. So I felt early on that this was an effect”.
The modern way of living interferes with our sleeping patterns- excessive physical and psychological stress, computer and phone screens are just some of the things that don’t let us sleep at night. To make things worse, some people reach out for sleeping drugs- they put you to sleep, but not in to the kind of sleep you were hoping for, they literally knock you down.
Flotation therapy enhances sleep on many levels. Sooner than you think, the brain will connect the position of your body in a tank with a feeling of utter peace flotation therapy brings. Taking the same body position in bed will trigger the relaxed state you experienced in a flotation tank and make you fall asleep much faster.
Muscles tend to tense up in times of stress, preparing the body for the fight (evolutionary adaptation). This can lead to headaches, back or neck pain and the feeling of nervousness or discomfort. Floating will teach you how to relax- at first it will happen as an unintentional reaction after a few minutes of floating, but after just a few sessions you will learn how to deliberately relax the muscles and in turn your mind. Once you learn to do it in a tank, you will easily master the skill of relaxation outside of it.
The solution (Epsom salts) in a tank soaks the skin with magnesium- an exceptionally important mineral in the human body. It has a role of a cofactor in a number of biochemical reactions throughout the body including the production of serotonin (a mood elevating neurotransmitter), nerve regeneration and heart muscle contraction.
