Float Therapy

Float therapy has been proven to be beneficial for helping reduce stress and anxiety in your daily life. It is considered to be a powerful tool for naturally stimulating your body’s relaxation response. Float tanks are designed to isolate the person in a dark tank full of heated water with epsom salt and relaxing music. The purpose of floating in this tank is to essentially deprive you of most sensation so that you can fall into a deep relaxed state. For those that have experience with float therapy, they may tell you the opposite of what float therapy is designed to do. For some people, instead of a float tank depriving you of all sensation, it can increase it, almost enhancing your experience. In this blog we will discuss some of the benefits of float therapy and whether or not it truly provides sensory deprivation experience or enhances all your senses.

There are many benefits to float therapy. Here we discuss some of the most promising effects that float therapy can have on your body. You can read more about it in this study.

Insomnia
- Remember the last time you were in a swimming pool and you spent some time floating? Do you recall getting better sleep that night? This is one of the many benefits of float therapy. Floating in a dark and illuminated environment filled with epsom salt and relaxation music can help your nervous system to relax and reset. This can regulate your sleep, limit any disturbances throughout the night and helps you achieve better sleep overall.
Lowers blood pressure
- The epsom salt in float therapy can help lower your blood pressure and replenish your red blood cells. The idea of float therapy is to eliminate gravity so you are essentially floating in water. Without gravity, your body is relieved of all pressure points allowing you to achieve an instant relaxed state of mind and body. This makes it easier for your blood vessels to dilate, maximize your oxygen intake and lower your blood pressure. Try using Dr. Teal's Pure Epsom Salt to achieve similar effects at home!

Mental Health
- Some people can describe float therapy as like hitting a “reset” button for your mental health. Float therapy has positive effects on your emotional and mental health. In most cases, it can improve anxiety and depression allowing you to have better self-confidence and better health and wellness overall. If you are feeling overwhelmed or stressed, try float therapy to ground you and relieve you of some of the tension you may be feeling.
Pain
- Another benefit of float therapy is pain reduction. The epsom salt in the tank can help to provide relief for muscle soreness, recovery, and joint inflammation. Many first time floaters have experienced the instant relief of physical pain. Not only does your body feel instantly lighter, your brain begins to secrete endorphins more frequently. Endorphins are your body's natural hormones that cause a state of happiness and relaxation.

Sensory Deprivation vs. Sensory Enhancement

Sensory Deprivation

According to the ScientDirect journal by Josef P. Rauschecker, sensory deprivation is considered to be a “lack of sensory stimulation, either by natural causes in cases of blindness or deafness, or in experimental settings.” The idea of sensory deprivation is to deprive the body of most senses so that your body enters a meditative state. There are six basic sensory systems that are greatly reduced during float therapy. They are visual, auditory, smell, taste, tactile (touch), and vestibular (movement). For some people, float tanks can significantly reduce anxiety and depression allowing them to feel at ease and more relaxed in the water. However, some people may find it to be a sensory enhancement experience making you feel more alarmed and aware of everything going on around you.

Sensory Enhancement

Sensory enhancement is the idea that all your senses are heightened past the point of what is considered to be normal for a human. In a float tank, you may feel more aware of the water, the epsom salt, the music, or you may even feel new sensations that you never felt before. This is a sensory enhancement experience and it can gradually increase with time. The longer you are in the water, the more sensation you may start to feel. This is because when you are floating, your internal senses also known as the proprioceptive and interoceptive systems are enhanced. The proprioceptive system is what lets you know where your body is in relation to space and gravity. The interoceptive system allows you to feel what your internal organs may be feeling. Both of these systems work together to guide your body and detect any internal changes. Read more about the science behind the interoceptive and proprioceptive systems!

There is so much research out there about the benefits of float therapy. While most research is based on sensory deprivation, there is a ton of research about how it can be a sensory enhancing experience. Whether or not you think it would be considered a sensory deprivation or enhancement experience is up to you to decide! Nevertheless, float therapy is a powerful tool and a preventative-health outcome that shows promising results. We hope you were able to learn more about float therapy and how it can be beneficial to your physical and mental health!

References

Jonsson, K., & Kjellgren, A. (2016). Promising effects of treatment with flotation-REST

(restricted environmental stimulation technique) as an intervention for generalized anxiety disorder (GAD): a randomized controlled pilot trial. BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine, 16(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12906-016-1089-x

Khalsa, S. S., Adolphs, R., Cameron, O. G., Critchley, H. D., Davenport, P. W., Feinstein, J. S.,

Feusner, J. D., Garfinkel, S. N., Lane, R. D., Mehling, W. E., Meuret, A. E., Nemeroff, C. B., Oppenheimer, S., Petzschner, F. H., Pollatos, O., Rhudy, J. L., Schramm, L. P., Simmons, W. K., Stein, M. B., & Stephan, K. E. (2018). Interoception and Mental Health: A Roadmap. Biological Psychiatry. Cognitive Neuroscience and Neuroimaging, 3(6), 501–513. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bpsc.2017.12.004

Rauschecker, J. (2018). Sensory Deprivation - an overview | ScienceDirect Topics.

Www.sciencedirect.com. https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/biochemistry-genetics-and-molecular-biology/sensory-deprivation#:~:text=Definition

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