Beneficial health effects of treatment with flotation-REST on anxiety, muscle tension pain, depression and sleep quality

Szypłowska Małgorzata, Kuś Adrian, Gładysz Konrad, Neścior Małgorzata, Szpiech Kamil. Beneficial health effects of treatment with flotation-REST on anxiety, muscle tension pain, depression and sleep quality. Journal of Education, Health and Sport. 2019;9(8):829-834. eISSN 2391-8306. DOI http://dx.doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3370424

http://ojs.ukw.edu.pl/index.php/johs/article/view/7249

 

 

 

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© The Authors 2019;

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Received: 05.07.2019. Revised: 25.07.2019. Accepted: 18.08.2019.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Beneficial health effects of treatment with flotation-REST on anxiety, muscle tension pain, depression and sleep quality

 

Małgorzata Szypłowska¹, Adrian Kuś¹, Konrad Gładysz¹, Małgorzata Neścior¹, Kamil Szpiech¹

 

¹ Student Research Circle at the Department of Epidemiology and Clinical Research Methodology, MedicalUniversity of Lublin

 

Supervisor: PhD Halina Piecewicz-Szczęsna²

² Department of Epidemiology and Clinical Research Methodology, Medical University of Lublin

 

Corresponding author: malgorzata.nescior@gmail.com

 

Abstract

Restricted environmental stimulation therapy (REST) is a method where all the external stimuli are restricted and it is used to relieve stress, anxiety and depression, as well as improving sleep quality. During a session of flotation-REST a patient is lying face-up in a tank filled with high-buoyancy water, allowing the patient to float comfortably on the surface. The tank reduces the external stimulation and allows to achieve a state of deep relaxation. It has many potential health benefits, including reduction of stress, anxiety and depression. A few studies suggested its positive effects on sleep quality too.

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate potential positive health effects of flotation-REST.Flotation-REST treatment decreased the degree of stress, anxiety or depression, whereas the patients' optimism and sleep quality were significantly increased. The results also indicate that the most severe perceived pain intensity was significantly reduced, however low perceived pain intensity was not influenced by the floating technique. 

It was concluded that flotation-REST has beneficial effects on decreasing stress, anxiety, depression and pain, therefore the method has potential as a complementary treatment of these. However, more studies are warranted to further evaluate the treatments efficacy.

 

Keywords: flotation tank, flotation, flotation-REST, REST, relaxation, stress, anxiety, pain, health