Allowing yourself a few minutes of downtime will significantly increase mental and physical relaxation. Research by psychologists at the University of Konstanz observed higher levels of psychological and physiological relaxation in humans after just ten minutes of massage. Even ten minutes of simple rest provided more relaxation, albeit to a lesser degree than massage. The findings provide the first indication that short-term treatments can significantly reduce stress on a psychological and physiological level by stimulating the body's main engine for relaxation – the parasympathetic nervous system (PNS).
Stress is known to have negative effects on health and disease. However, our bodies have a built-in regenerative system, the PNS, to fend off stress in times of threat. So, launching a relaxation response is key to protecting our health and restoring balance in our body. Massage has been used to enhance relaxation, but no systematic approach exists to vigorously confirm its effect on the PNS and whether or not it can be used as a rehabilitation tool for patients suffering from stress-related illnesses.
Stimulate the body's motor for relaxation
This study indicates that massage is an easy-to-apply intervention that can stimulate the body's main engine for relaxation – the PNS – and also lead to a reduction in perceived mental stress. The discovery that massage is effective at the level of both psychology and physiology through the PNS will pave the way for future studies on understanding the role of relaxation on stress.
“To better understand the negative effects of stress, we need to understand its opposite:relaxation,” said Jens Pruessner, chief of the neuropsychology lab and professor at the Cluster of Excellence Center for the Advanced Study of Collective Behavior. ” at the University of Constance. “Relaxation therapies show promise as a holistic way to treat stress, but a more systematic scientific assessment of these methods is needed.”
Standardized test approach
Researchers at the psychology department in Konstanz developed a standardized approach to test whether tactile stimulation could improve mental and physical relaxation. They applied two different ten-minute massages to human subjects in the lab for testing:A head-neck massage was designed to actively stimulate the PNS by applying moderate pressure to the vagus nerve, the largest nerve that leads to the PNS. . Next, a neck-shoulder massage with gentle stroking movements was devised to investigate whether touch alone can also be relaxing. Finally, a control group of participants sitting quietly at a table was tested for the effect of rest without tactile stimulation. Physiological relaxation was measured by monitoring participants' heart rates and measuring heart rate variability (HRV), which indicates how flexibly the PNS can respond to environmental changes. The higher the HRV, the more relaxed the body is. Psychological relaxation was measured by asking participants to describe how relaxed or stressed they feel.
Resting for ten minutes or receiving either massage resulted in psychological and physiological stress reduction. All participants reported feeling more relaxed and less stressed compared to before the treatments. Furthermore, all participants showed a significant increase in heart rate variability, demonstrating that the PNS was activated and the body physiologically relaxed by resting alone. The physiological effect was more pronounced when participants received a massage. However, it was not important whether the massage was gentle or moderate – tactile contact in general seemed to improve the relaxation of the body.
Small moments with a big impact
“We are very encouraged by the findings that short periods of disconnection are enough to relax not only the mind but also the body,” said Maria Meier, a doctoral student in the Laboratory of Neuropsychology and lead author of the study. “You don't need professional treatment to relax. Having someone gently stroke your shoulders, or even just rest your head on the table for ten minutes, is an effective way to stimulate your body's physiological engine of relaxation.”
By developing a standardized method for robust testing and validation of relaxation therapies, the study allows for further experiments to test the effects of additional relaxation interventions that can be used in prevention or rehabilitation programs for people suffering from stress-related illnesses such as depression.
“Massage, a widely used relaxation therapy, was our first study,” Meier says. “Our next step is to test whether other brief interventions, such as breathing exercises and meditation, produce comparable psychological and physiological relaxation results.”
