Trial reportScientific reports2024
Induction of altered states of consciousness during Floatation-REST is associated with the dissolution of body boundaries and the distortion of subjective time.
Trial report in Scientific reports, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to trial NCT07429617 (Effect of Darkness Retreat on Worry and Rumination in a Non-clinical Population), which is not on this map. Cited by 6 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Effect of Darkness Retreat on Worry and Rumination in a Non-clinical Population: a Pilot Study
Who cites it
6 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- A systematic review of flotation-restricted environmental stimulation therapy (REST).BMC complementary medicine and therapies · 2025Pooled it
- The micro-phenomenology of Floatation-REST.BMC complementary medicine and therapies · 2026Article
- Aquahenosis: a non-pharmacological altered state of consciousness induced by floatation-REST in individuals with anxiety and depression.Neuroscience of consciousness · 2026Article
- Hypnagogia, psychedelics, and sensory deprivation: the mythic structure of dream-like experiences.Frontiers in psychology · 2025Article
- Interoceptive and Bodily Processing in Prospective and Retrospective Timing.Current topics in behavioral neurosciences · 2025Review
- Subjective Time in Ordinary and Non-ordinary States of Consciousness: How Interoceptive Feelings Inform Us About the Passage of Time.Current topics in behavioral neurosciences · 2025Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Floatation-REST (Reduced Environmental Stimulation Therapy) minimizes stimulation of the nervous system by immersing subjects in an environment without sound or light while they effortlessly float in thermoneutral water supersaturated with Epsom salt. Here we investigated the relationship between altered states of consciousness (ASC) and its association with the affective changes induced by Floatation-REST. Using a within-subject crossover design, 50 healthy subjects were randomized to 60 min of Floatation-REST or 60 min of Bed-REST (an active control condition that entailed lying supine on a warm waterbed in a dark and quiet room). Following Floatation-REST, subjects felt significantly more relaxed, less anxious, and less tired than after Bed-REST. Floatation-REST also induced significantly more pronounced ASC characterized by the dissolution of body boundaries and the distortion of subjective time. The loss of body boundaries mediated the loss of anxiety, revealing a novel mechanism by which Floatation-REST exerts its anxiolytic effect.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.