It’s darkish in right here, and all I can hear is my breath. I’m floating in a sensory deprivation tank, which is mainly like a tub in a silent, lightless room. I shut my eyes and take small sips of air, filling my stomach consciously earlier than slowly releasing. Ideas are racing about what I “ought to” or “might” be doing. I can’t cease them from arising, however I do my finest to allow them to go like clouds within the sky. You’re right here now, I inform myself.
Should you battle with basic nervousness dysfunction like I do, or expertise situational nervousness, then you understand simply how tough it may be to push pause on anxious ideas. It’s scary to really feel like you’ve little or no management over them; however maybe much more scary is the worry that it’s going to at all times be that manner.
Over the previous seven years, I’ve tried a number of treatments to alleviate my nervousness, together with nightly meditation, yoga, spending time exterior, and scheduling one full day every week to relaxation. But it surely wasn’t till 2019, after I started working as an assistant at Integrative Bodily Remedy, that I first heard about floating in a sensory deprivation tank and its potential calming results. Connected to this clinic is Baker Metropolis Float Middle, the primary area to supply a sensory deprivation tank in northeast Oregon. Having simply graduated from faculty with a level in Utilized Well being and Health, my ardour for wellness was very a lot alive, and I used to be keen to offer floating a attempt.
What precisely is a sensory deprivation tank, and the way can it assist with nervousness?
Floating in a sensory deprivation tank is a zero-gravity expertise meant to calm the nervous system via restricted environmental stimulation remedy (REST), or an expertise designed to activate as few of your senses as doable.
Typically, float tanks for sensory deprivation are available in a wide range of styles and sizes, together with pods, rooms, and cabins, all of that are crammed with shallow water and near 1,000 kilos of Epsom salt (which raises the buoyancy of the water, making floating easy). A float pod is a spherical tank you submerge your self in with a lid that closes on high of you, whereas a float room is a darkish room with an open tank just like a tub (making it a extra appropriate alternative for anybody with claustrophobia).
Someplace in between the 2 is a float cabin, which is the one I made a decision to attempt firsthand. It’s primarily a roomy tank—large enough to face up inside—with a door for coming into and exiting. In some locations, like at Baker Metropolis, there are buttons throughout the cabin for rotating via an assortment of dim coloured lights, and even for taking part in soothing music or a meditation.
Sometimes, nevertheless, the atmosphere inside a float pod, tank, or cabin is supposed to be just about lightless and soundless. This primarily “deprives” your senses of enter, which makes all of it the simpler to lose monitor of the place your physique ends and the water begins. “Whereas floating, your physique calms, melts, and softens; it feels extra spacious and resilient,” says bodily therapist and authorized lymphedema therapist Anne Nemec, PT, proprietor of Integrative Bodily Remedy and Baker Metropolis Float Middle. “This may happen within the thoughts, too. You might [feel as though you] have extra room and selections.” Earlier than ever making an attempt floating for herself, Nemec invested in a Dreampod Float Cabin—a particular sort of sensory deprivation tank—so as to add to her bodily remedy clinic due to the distinctive impression she believed it will have on her group. “Floating is like meditation on steroids,” she says.
Specifically, Nemec touts the physiological modifications that may occur throughout a float session, which was proven to assist cut back stress and nervousness scores in wholesome contributors in a 2014 pilot research. Researchers imagine that floating in a sensory deprivation tank could lower sympathetic nervous system output (aka “combat or flight”) whereas growing parasympathetic exercise (aka “relaxation and digest”), which in flip lowers coronary heart charge and blood stress, and slows respiratory.
As a result of people with nervousness typically have a better sympathetic response to emphasize, it’s doable {that a} modality like floating—recognized to lower that activation—might have even stronger, longer-term advantages in folks with nervousness.
In reality, a 2018 research evaluating the results of floating in a sensory deprivation tank amongst 50 folks with numerous anxiety-related issues and 30 non-anxious people discovered that the previous group skilled considerably bigger stress-reducing results (and in that group, the float additionally offered extra aid for most people than any of the opposite strategies they’d beforehand tried). And in a small 2016 research of people that did 12 floating classes over a number of weeks, contributors with generalized nervousness dysfunction skilled a big enchancment in nervousness signs from their baseline.
My expertise with floating in a sensory deprivation tank
Being that I’ve tried nearly the whole lot else for my nervousness, which remains to be one thing I battle with, I made a decision I’d give floating a attempt to see if it’d ease my signs.
The primary time I entered a tank, I had excessive expectations for myself and the expertise. For instance, I advised myself that the lights should keep off, I couldn’t get out, and I wanted to verify I did my respiratory workouts, meditated, prayed, and stretched whereas within the tank. As you’ll be able to inform, I’ve this unhealthy behavior of turning relaxation into work. (That’s my nervousness for you.)
In consequence, my first time floating wasn’t as useful as I think it might have been. My thoughts continued to hurry one million miles per hour, and I went on worrying about to-dos—I nonetheless want to answer that textual content! I ought to actually begin trying into grad packages!—as quickly as I received dwelling.
The excellent news is, I went again…not as soon as, however three extra occasions, motivated by the thought that I might reap the advantages with some apply. Every time, I discovered that I might put much less stress on myself to be “excellent” at floating— making it a complete lot extra enjoyable.
For this reason Nemec says it’s necessary to method a float with none strict calls for of your self. “That is your float and time,” she says. “There isn’t any proper strategy to float; you’ll be able to at all times get out when wanted, and also you’re in full management of nevertheless you’d like your time to go.” For some people with nervousness, that’s simpler mentioned than accomplished. It might be useful to inquire concerning the potential modifications out there, she suggests. That may imply beginning with shorter classes and utilizing sounds, music, or lighting to ease into the brand new atmosphere.
For me, optimistic self-talk has been probably the most useful all through my float journey. I’ve began telling myself that it’s okay if I select to have the lights on within the tank, or get out earlier than the time is up. I apply conscious respiratory after I can but additionally settle for when my physique desires to breathe naturally. I don’t deliberately pray or meditate whereas within the tank, however I do discover that the expertise typically takes me, mentally, someplace far-off, and when that occurs, it’s a welcome break from the inside turmoil my nervousness often causes.
Upon exiting the float tank the previous couple occasions, I’ve additionally had extra peace of thoughts, ease all through my day, and acceptance after I don’t end the whole lot I’d hoped to get accomplished.
Nonetheless, that doesn’t imply everybody (and even everybody with nervousness) ought to begin floating repeatedly. Maybe being alone together with your ideas or just being in any type of enclosed area for upwards of an hour simply sounds terrifying or uncomfortable. In these situations, it might be finest to go on floating, as can be the case you probably have any open wounds, tubes in your ears, a seizure dysfunction, or kidney or liver points that would enhance magnesium absorption from floating to harmful ranges. If any of the above applies to you, examine in with a physician earlier than scheduling a float session.
In any other case, take into account that managing nervousness is all about discovering what works finest for you bodily, emotionally, and financially via trial and error. Out of the tons of of coping methods on the market, floating in a sensory deprivation tank is only one suggestion to handle the on a regular basis weight of anxious ideas.
In my world, nevertheless, floating has helped me cope extra successfully with my nervousness, alongside yoga, writing, and spending time exterior. Should you’re like me, you would possibly simply discover {that a} float every now and then actually helps lighten the load.