Benefits of Float Therapy for Pain and Depression
Apr 01, 2024 12:00AM ● By Jordan Peschek
Float therapy is a natural and relaxing experience that has been known to help reduce pain, improve quality of sleep and ease symptoms of anxiety and depression. Also referred to as flotation therapy, floatation therapy or Restricted Environment Stimulation Therapy (REST), it is a quiet and mindful experience that consists of floating horizontally in a tank of water with high concentration of magnesium sulphate in the water to increase buoyancy.
A 2023 study published in NeuroRegulation, the journal of the International Society of NeuroRegulation and Research, found that float therapy offered significant improvement in neural shifts in anxious and depressed populations dealing with chronic back pain. This further supports current research suggesting flotation therapy to be a promising nonpharmacological option to help relieve pain, along with anxiety and depressive symptoms that are often associated with such discomfort.
