Table 3.
Differences in changes in multiple measured biometrics during meditation between experienced and novice meditators and the first and last day of the meditation retreat.
| First day | Last day | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Experienced meditators | Novice meditators | p-value (N) | Experienced meditators | Novice meditators | p-value (N) | |
| Change in mean respiratory rate/minute | −0.72 | −0.47 | 0.002 (N = 40) | −0.43 | 0.02 | 0.12 (N = 29) |
| Change in mean heart rate/minute | −0.11 | −0.21 | 0.63 (N = 40) | −0.96 | −0.89 | 0.97 (N = 29) |
| Change in mean arterial blood pressure (mmHg) | −0.50 | −1.14 | 0.88 (N = 16) | 0.21 | 0.00 | 0.61 (N = 15) |
| Change in heart rate variability (RMSSD) | 4.95 | 3.07 | 0.36 (N = 40) | 2.12 | 6.71 | 0.19 (N = 29) |
| Change in median nuHF HRV | 0.0164 | −0.0614 | 0.28 (N = 40) | 0.1373 | 0.1263 | 0.78 (N = 29) |
| Change in mean lnHF HRV | −0.160 | −0.417 | 0.12 (N = 40) | −0.748 | −0.662 | 0.55 (N = 29) |
| Change in scaled meditation score | 0.139 | −0.015 | <0.001 (N = 15) | 0.053 | 0.036 | <0.001 (N = 11) |
| Change in relative gamma score | −0.21 | −0.003 | <0.01 (N = 15) | 0.072 | −0.020 | <0.01 (N = 11) |
RMSSD, Root Mean Square Sequential Differences in RR intervals; nuHF HRV, normalized high frequency heart rate variability; lnHF HRV, natural log high frequency heart rate variability.