A four-week mindfulness course may protect against more mind wandering

The review

1. 01

   Who took part

   The five studies had 304 adults in South Florida. They included firefighters, military spouses, company staff, community leaders and teachers. Their average ages ran from about 31 to 52.

2. 02

   What they did

   People in the mindfulness groups took a four-week course, mostly one two-hour class a week. They also practised for 10 to 15 minutes a day. The other groups had no training.

3. 03

   What happened

   The no-training groups got worse at mind wandering and at noticing it, but the mindfulness groups did not. Response times varied less in the mindfulness groups, and accuracy showed no clear difference. Most of the studies were too small to show differences of this size reliably.

What the review found

1. Helped

   In five studies, mindfulness training kept mind wandering from rising over four weeks.

   • Action: Practise mindfulnesstested
   • Rule: Every daytested

   Pooled analysis of 5 studies with 304 people · vs people who got no training · they rated themselves · ⚠ whole programmes were tested, so no single part can be credited; mixes trials with other kinds of study

2. Helped

   In five studies, mindfulness training kept people from losing track of where their attention was.

   • Action: Practise mindfulnesstested
   • Rule: Every daytested

   Pooled analysis of 5 studies with 304 people · vs people who got no training · they rated themselves · ⚠ whole programmes were tested, so no single part can be credited; mixes trials with other kinds of study

3. Helped

   In five studies, mindfulness training made response times more even on an attention task.

   • Action: Practise mindfulnesstested
   • Rule: Every daytested

   Pooled analysis of 5 studies with 304 people · vs people who got no training · behaviour was recorded · ⚠ whole programmes were tested, so no single part can be credited; mixes trials with other kinds of study

4. No difference

   In five studies, accuracy rose in the mindfulness groups, but no more than in the no-training groups.

   • Action: Practise mindfulnesstested
   • Rule: Every daytested

   Pooled analysis of 5 studies with 304 people · vs people who got no training · behaviour was recorded · ⚠ whole programmes were tested, so no single part can be credited; mixes trials with other kinds of study

Source