Sound Bath · Meditation

Effects of Singing Bowl Sound Meditation on Mood, Tension, and Well-being: An Observational Study

Goldsby TL, Goldsby ME, McWalters M, et al. · Journal of Evidence-Based Complementary & Alternative Medicine, 2017

This observational study looked at how people felt before and after a Tibetan singing bowl sound meditation, a format close to what many people call a sound bath. Sixty-two women and men with an average age of about 50 took part. Compared with how they felt beforehand, participants afterward reported significantly less tension, anger, fatigue and depressed mood, and their sense of spiritual well-being increased. People who had never tried this kind of meditation before showed a larger drop in tension than those who were already familiar with it. The authors suggest singing bowl meditation may be a low-cost, low-technology way to ease tension and low mood. The key limitation is the design: there was no control group, so the changes cannot be separated from the effect of simply lying down and resting in a calm setting.

Our summaries describe what each study found. They are not medical advice, and the practices at Halcyon are not a treatment for any condition.