Is a Few Minutes of Meditation Better Than More?

"Standard wisdom around meditation tends to prescribe 20 minutes or more per session. A recent study shows long-time meditators use longer sessions, but beginners are best served by short bursts. Consistency is key, but skipped days are okay, and 5 minutes several days a week might be all you need."

"Insight Timer's study looked at meditation habits and several novel targets, showing that my experience was common. They looked at dose (how long meditators meditate), habits (meditation routines and times), and types of meditation (interoceptive, based on internal foci like the breath or body; and exteroceptive, based outwardly, like lovingkindness or mantra meditation)."

A longitudinal study by Insight Timer tracking over 10,000 meditators across 103 countries from 2021-2022 challenges conventional meditation wisdom. Long-time meditators typically use longer sessions, but beginners achieve better results with shorter bursts of 5-10 minutes. Consistency proves more important than session length, with several shorter sessions weekly outperforming sporadic longer sessions. Skipped days are acceptable, and the study reveals that many people successfully establish meditation habits through brief, regular practice rather than adhering to the traditional 20-minute standard. This finding explains why shorter meditation apps like Headspace helped establish sustainable practices where longer sessions previously failed.

Read at Psychology Today