Brain Age and Sleep Architecture in Meditators (BRANCH)

This is a single-center, cross-sectional study that will recruit approximately fifty seven (57) meditators and fifty one (51) controls. Individuals that have learned at least the Shambhavi Mahamudra Kriya practice and live in Massachusetts will be mailed a DREEM EEG device, and a sleepimage ring. Participants will be asked to wear the two devices while sleeping for three consecutive weekday nights (Sunday night to Thursday night) and two weekend nights (Friday and Saturday nights). While meditating during the day, participants will only wear the DREEM EEG headband. Participants will also undergo neurocognitive tests from the NIH toolbox during one virtual visit via video call. Meditators who join the study will be asked to invite a control subject to the study, matched for age and comorbidities.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Brain Age
• Intervention / Treatment: Device: DREEM EEG Device; Device: SleepImage Ring

Detailed Description

Approximately one hundred and eight (108) individuals will undergo three consecutive weekday nights and two weekend nights of EEG and plethysmography recording using the DREEM headband and SleepImage rings, after answering a demographic questionnaire. Out of these 108 participants, the study will aim for 57 meditators and 51 matched controls. Only meditating participants will be asked to perform the most advanced form of meditation among the following three, which are listed from least advanced to most advanced: Shambhavi Mahamudra Kriya, Shoonya Meditation, Samyama Meditation (Breath watching). Participants will be instructed to wear the DREEM EEG headband during their practice of this meditation during each of the five days.

All participants will also be asked to undergo cognitive assessments from the NIH toolbox during a video call. The assessments from the NIH toolbox will last approximately forty-five minutes to one hour.

EEG: The participants will be mailed the DREEM devices and asked to wear them for three consecutive weekday nights and two weekend nights while sleeping. During the day, for each of these five nights, meditating participants will also be asked to wear the device while they sit still with their eyes closed, without trying to meditate, for 10 minutes. This will function as the baseline waking EEG measurement. Immediately following this, participants will be asked to perform their meditation while wearing the DREEM device for a maximum of 30 minutes.

NIH Toolbox:

This study will use select tests from the NIH Toolbox Cognition Battery and from the NIH Toolbox Emotion Battery. All of the tests together will take approximately 45 minutes to 1 hour to complete.

The selected tests from the batteries are the following:

Cognition Battery

1. Picture vocabulary test
2. List sorting working memory test
3. Picture Sequence Memory test
4. Oral reading recognition test

Emotion Battery:

1. Positive Affect CAT
2. General Life Satisfaction CAT
3. Emotional Support FF
4. Instrumental Support FF
5. Friendship FF
6. Loneliness FF
7. Perceived Stress FF

• Study Type: Observational
• Enrollment (Actual): 108

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• United States
  • Massachusetts
    • Boston, Massachusetts, United States, 02215
      • Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Centre

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 18 years and older (Adult, Older Adult)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes

• Sampling Method: Non-Probability Sample

Study Population

Subjects will not be recruited based on race, ethnicity, or gender. However, it is not clear whether the final study sample will contain a representative spread of the racial and gender makeup.

Description

Inclusion Criteria (Meditators):

1. Previous experience with learning Shambhavi Mahamudra Kriya
2. Age 18 years or older.
3. Lives in the United States barring California

Inclusion Criteria (Controls):

1. Age 18 years or older
2. Lives in the United States barring California

Exclusion Criteria (both groups):

1. Non-English Speaking
2. Night Shift workers

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Number of groups / cohorts

2

Cohorts and Interventions

Group / Cohort	Intervention / Treatment
Meditation; This is the group that will have learned at least Shamhbavi Mahamudra Kriya before they are enrolled in the study.	Device: DREEM EEG Device; The DREEM EEG device will be used to measure brain age.; Device: SleepImage Ring; The SleepImage ring uses plethysmography to analyze sleep architecture and cardiopulmonary coupling.
Control; This is the group that will not have learned Shambhavi Mahamudra Kriya before they are enrolled in the study. They will be invited to the study by the Meditation group.	Device: DREEM EEG Device; The DREEM EEG device will be used to measure brain age.; Device: SleepImage Ring; The SleepImage ring uses plethysmography to analyze sleep architecture and cardiopulmonary coupling.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Brain Age	Brain Age will be calculated using an algorithm from the sleeping EEG. A Brain Age index score will be created for each participant based on an aggregate of the five days of sleeping EEG data. The Brain Age Index is the brain age calculated from the algorithm subtracted by the chronological age of the participant.	Measured for 3 weekday and 3 weekend nights during the data collection period

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): November 10, 2022
• Primary Completion (Actual): July 4, 2025
• Study Completion (Actual): December 31, 2025

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: August 22, 2022
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: August 22, 2022
• First Posted (Actual): August 24, 2022

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): January 15, 2026
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: January 13, 2026
• Last Verified: January 1, 2026

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Other Study ID Numbers: 2022P000597

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: NO

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No
• product manufactured in and exported from the U.S.: No