She has also had 16 wellness books published by major publishers including the bestselling Easy GI Diet, The Macro Method, Quit Alcohol (For a Month) and Eat 5. Her books have sold over one million copies.
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There’s no doubt that meditation is beneficial – and, if you’ve already decided that you want to give it a try, but are now wondering ‘how long should I meditate for?’, we understand.
We’ve also wondered how much meditation is required to get its benefits, so we decided to have a look at the science, and ask the experts, – how long should you meditate for?
And here’s what they told us…
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What is Meditation?
While there are different types of practice, meditation is basically sitting quietly and using breathwork, and/or a few mental techniques, to try and stay quietly in the present.
When you’re meditating, you’re not worrying about what you’ve got to do next, or things that you should have done this month (or that went wrong three weeks last Wednesday), you’re just ‘here’.
It’s often described as switching off your thoughts, but in reality, your mind is always thinking, and so instead, it’s more a case of not focusing on those thoughts for a while.
‘Meditation comes in many forms, for some it is while running or reading a book or sitting quietly and listening to music. The key is the ability to quieten the mind and be fully present in the moment, and that, in essence, is what meditation is,’ says Sarah-Jane Lewis, Holistic Energy Practitioner and expert meditator.
What Does Meditation Feel Like?
If you’re a meditation beginner, the concept of ‘meditating’ might seem complex. One of the easiest ways to understand it is by using one of the many meditation techniques available to help beginners get started.
Known as body scanning, it involves sitting with your eyes closed, focusing on how each part of your body feels in a factual sense – light, heavy, hot, cold – for a little while.
One part at a time, you move your thoughts, part by part, from head to toe, just focusing on those simple facts.
Other thoughts, including why you feel hot, cold, light or heavy, are tossed aside; you just think about that one body part and how it feels right here, right now.
This technique is particularly suggested for beginners as it helps you learn to be in the present and redirect unwanted thoughts, but once you get more practised at meditation, you might not need to use any focusing technique; you just sit, in the moment, and chill.
How Long Should You Meditate For?
Here’s some good news – it’s probably not as long as you might think!
‘My general reply to this question is for as long as you are comfortable,’ says Sarah-Jane. ‘For people who are completely stressed and have never meditated before, even just taking one minute to close your eyes and focus on your breath can be profoundly beneficial.
But I usually recommend that new clients start with 5-8 minutes.
This is long enough to switch off from day-to-day life, to centre your thoughts and to activate your parasympathetic nervous system, which helps reduce stress and anxiety and calm the body.’
Admittedly, when you first start meditation, 5-8 minutes can seem like an age, so Sarah-Jane suggests starting off using a guided meditation.
‘A guided meditation gives you something to focus on and allows you to switch off more easily.
There is nothing worse than trying to conjure a blank empty space in your mind, failing to do so, than giving up.’ There’s plenty of guided meditations online, or, check out Headspace meditation app, which aims to help make meditation easier (even for those of us whose mind does not want to shut up!)
Related Read: Meditation Tools That Can Still Your Mind
What About Meditating For Specific Benefits
Of course, another question about meditation is how long you need to meditate to achieve a specific result. Is there a perfect amount of meditation practice that reduces anxiety or lowers your levels of stress, for example?
To determine this, you can look at some of the trials into the benefits of meditation.
These clearly define the amount of time people in the study are asked to meditate for, and if the results are positive, it’s likely a good guideline to aim for in real life as well.
Meditation to Reduce Worry
Research from the University of Waterloo in Canada found that ten minutes of meditation a day was enough to help reduce the amount of time people ruminated on negative thoughts.
Meditation For Mental Health
One US trial found that 13 minutes of meditation a day, for eight weeks, led to several effects on mental health like improved mood, lowered levels of anxiety and improved focus and memory.
Meditation For Pain
When it came to fighting pain, experts at Leeds Beckett University in the UK found that ten minutes of mindful meditation a day helped people control their pain more effectively.
Meditation For Heart Health
And for heart health and lowering of blood pressure, 20 minutes a day was the magic number in one US trial on people with heart disease.
How Long Does it Take to Get Results?
So, as you can see, you don’t need to commit hours a day to meditation to get some benefit, but what you do need to do is practise consistently.
With all of these trials, the more consistently people practised, and the longer they kept things up, the more likely they were to show results.
In the mental health trial, for example, when the researchers looked at what was happening to the volunteers four weeks into the trial, they hadn’t yet seen the same benefits that were achieved eight weeks in.
So, if you’re looking to practise meditation to say, improve anxiety, expect to see measurable results after about two months of practice – although you might feel better faster than that.
‘Meditation needs to be built as a habit, and being very consistent with it will help you achieve great results quickly,’ says meditation coach Thibo David.
‘Unfortunately, turning up every day to do something we haven’t yet mastered is often doomed to fail.’
For this reason, Thibo suggests that you give yourself some room to breathe: start meditating for, say, four or six minutes for at least two consecutive days, then aim to increase to ten minutes over the following days.
This approach is more likely to help you achieve your goals than just trying to do a long session out of the gate.
So, the moral of this story is, don’t give up too fast. But also….
Don’t Stress About the Numbers Too Much
We now live in a world where we like to track our health stats. We know how many steps we’ve done, how long we’ve stood up for, how many minutes we’ve spent in REM sleep, and so at this point, you might be wondering if you should be tracking your meditation minutes in some way too?
Thibo says that’s not the best idea, ‘setting up any timer can defeat the purpose of meditation. You’ll be trying to quiet the mind, knowing you will be in a race against time to silence your thoughts as quickly as possible.’
If you do want an idea of how you’re doing, Thibo suggests setting a timer to see how long you meditate for rather than trying to reach a goal.
‘The most important thing to focus on is not so much the time but more the quality of the time spent observing your thoughts,’ he says.
Should You Meditate Every Day?
‘A daily practice is ideal, but we do not live in an ideal world. Life gets in the way and we find the day has disappeared before we know it,’ says Sarah-Jane.
‘So, I would always aim for a regular practice, say 3 or 4 times a week, rather than not at all. Something is better than nothing.
Over time, you will feel the benefits and you will be naturally inclined to continue and increase your practice rather than give up entirely because it ‘did not work.’
The Headspace team agree, saying that 10 minutes of meditation, seven days a week, is better than trying to do a 70-minute session once a week.
Is There a Best Time of Day to Meditate?
There are benefits to meditating both in the morning and in the evening.
Benefits of Morning Meditation
In the morning, your cortisol levels are high to wake you up and get you moving. Meditating now can help lower those before the stresses of the day kick in.
It can be easier to make time to meditate first thing in the morning – it’s less likely to be crowded out by other things to do, and you’re more likely to get into the habit.
Check out our post on creating a morning routine if you need a little more help making it work for you.
Benefits of Evening Meditation
Meditating in the evening, though, gives you a chance to switch off for the day and start to remove thoughts that might interfere with sleep.
On top of this, Thibo says, ‘meditating before sleeping increases the quality of your sleep and your dreams by improving the quality and duration of deep sleep phases.’
If you need some extra help with sleep, check out this post on how to fall asleep faster.
But it’s more important to be consistent and try to choose roughly the same time each day.
‘A consistent time would be greatly beneficial as it becomes part of your routine and you know that 7 am or 9 pm is your meditation time,’ says Sarah-Jane.
‘Also, if you live with others, say a busy family house, it allows others to know that this is your time and hopefully they will respect this. Routine and consistency are key.’
So, the best time of day to meditate is whenever you can make it work for you.
Can You Meditate for Too Long?
‘I do not believe you can meditate for too long,’ says Sarah-Jane.
‘But for the average person, the thought of a meditation being unlimited is most probably more off-putting than encouraging.
If you do have time and over a period of time have increased your practice to the point where you are comfortable staying in meditation for longer, then knock yourself out.’
Should You Meditate on an Empty Stomach?
It’s a common question, and it makes sense when you think that more meditative forms of exercise, like yoga, are best done on an empty stomach, but Sarah-Jane says it’s not essential to get results.
‘Personally, I wouldn’t meditate on an empty stomach, as I will be thinking about what I will be eating afterwards, especially if I am starving hungry.
Similarly, I wouldn’t do it on a full stomach, as you are likely to feel drowsy and fall asleep.
Again, this comes back to routine and consistency. To stress there is no wrong or right way to meditate, the only way is your way.’
Do You Need a Special Corner or Anything?
Pinterest is full of pretty pictures of meditation spaces, but you don’t really need any fancy place to meditate. Just find a quiet and cosy spot where you can sit uninterrupted for as long as you’d like to practice.
If you do want to create a space for your practice, though, we have a simple guide on creating a meditation space in your home, without making over your entire house!
And despite the posture of our bendy zen couple way up at the start of this piece, you also don’t need to sit cross-legged, or contort yourself into some lotus-pretzel shape to meditate.
If your sitting position is causing you aches and pains. You’ll be too busy focusing on those to let your mind relax fully. So, find a position in which you can relax. However, you might want to position your hands in the traditional O shape you see in the picture above, as that might help you concentrate – find out why here.
So, there you have it – a quick guide on how much meditation you need to achieve results, along with the answer to how long you should meditate for. So what do you think?
Do you have a set amount of meditation that gives you the most benefits, or any tips to make it easier if you’re a meditation beginner? If so, let us know in the comments.
Also, shout out if you have any further questions about all things meditation.
Who is The Wellness Nerd?
My name is Helen Foster, and I’m a health journalist and wellness author. Publications I’ve written for include Women’s Health, Reader’s Digest, Body and Soul, Good Health at the Daily Mail, and more. I have also written 16 books on health and nutrition.
