TITLE:
The Effects of Meditation and Music on Stress in College Individuals
AUTHORS:
Hannah Stokan, Cristina Nguyen, Miranda Martinez
KEYWORDS:
Anxiety, Stress, Neuropsychology, Adolescent, Meditation, Music
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Psychiatry,
Vol.12 No.3,
July
18,
2022
ABSTRACT: Background: Stress is a universal
experience, now more than ever due to an ongoing worldwide pandemic. Modern
college students are not only faced with the external pressures of succeeding
academically, but they’re also affected by a multitude of other variables that are
causing their mental health to suffer. This social trend highlights the need for
a simple, efficient, and immediate remedy for individuals suffering from these
stressors. Objective: In this controlled study, we assessed the effects
of two methods proven by existing research to have stress-relieving effects.
Participating college students underwent music (Weightless by Marconi Union)
and mindfulness meditation (Daily Calm) treatments. Methods: Ten college
students were screened via a self-reporting questionnaire to identify any
pre-existing conditions that may present as extraneous variables. Quantitative
variables related to stress, such as alpha frequency waves and heart rate, were
obtained during baseline and post-treatment stress-induced environments using
an iWire EEG recorder and oximeter pulse monitor. Each individual underwent treatments
for a duration of five minutes, each with
noise-canceling headphones. Students were placed in an experimental stressor
state induced by the Stroop test, which provided baseline stressor data.
Subsequently, participants underwent each treatment, recording their heart rate
before and after each. Upon each treatment’s conclusion, the Stroop test was
administered again while alpha wave data was recorded. The final data set was
analyzed using a repeated-measures Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) test and paired
T-tests. Results: Participants’ data showed a decrease in both max-min
and mean frequencies for both treatment methods, though the only statistically
significant difference between baseline recordings was found in mean
frequencies for meditation treatment. No significance or trend was found in
changes in heart rate. Conclusions: We concluded that our hypothesis was
not supported as the statistical tests showed a significant decrease in mean
alpha wave frequencies between the baseline stressor and meditation data rather
than that for music therapy. This is indicative of meditation’s greater
effectiveness in increasing stress tolerance in participants, which lessened
the effects of the controlled stressor event, generating lower alpha frequency
waves. Upon experiment conclusion, possible sources of error were identified
and varied between potential compounding effects of consecutively administered
treatments and an inability of the Stroop Test (SCWT) to induce an adequate
level of stress in all patients. In order to circumvent the aforementioned
errors, we suggest a change in methodology in which treatments would be
conducted on separate days and further research into the efficacy of the SCWT
as an all-inclusive stress inducer.