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An Investigation of Whether Different Kinds of External Sounds Would Influence Meditation Process
FAN Yixin
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DOI:10.17265/2159-5542/2022.08.011
Jinan Thomas School, Jinan, China
It is worth mentioning that meditation, which acts as emotional therapy, has become popular in human lives nowadays. Some psychology-related software provides users with guided meditation. However, after experiencing this, several users cannot detect the effect of meditation on their mood and sleep quality. This study aims to investigate whether different kinds of sounds would affect meditation effectiveness. Specifically, it provides a reference for that software to improve the meditation function. In this context, meditation is defined as a mental exercise that trains attention and awareness. To test the hypothesis that white noise meditation would be the most effective one, while silent meditation is the least effective, an online meditation was carried out among 40 participants. They were divided into four conditions, A for vocal guidance, B for white noise, C for pure music, and D for silent condition. Responses were recorded using both pre-questionnaire and post-questionnaire about meditation, and then it was analyzed through bar charts. The results and hypothesis deviated insignificantly: Guided meditation is the most effective one in affecting participants’ mood and sleep quality, while silent meditation is the least effective one. These results suggested that the meditation software provided do have a positive impact on users’ mood calming and sleep quality improvement. By contrast, some participants who did not have meditation experience before this study support that software should also concentrate on white noise meditation.
meditation, mood, sleep quality, white noise, guided meditation
Psychology Research, August 2022, Vol. 12, No. 8, 643-655
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