Studies on the effect of mindfulness apps and wearables for enhancing well-being of users
In this article we discuss and review a few papers that study the effect of mindfulness apps and wearables on stress levels and overall well-being of users.
Research on effectiveness of mindfulness apps in stress reduction
In an 8-weeks workplace study on effects on the Headspace mindfulness app on 238 office users in UK (Bostock et al., 2019), the app users showed significant and sustained improvement in well being.
In a study of university students using the Calm app (Huberty et al., 2019), app users reported a significant improvement in reducing stress levels. Huberty et al. (2021) also found that Calm app subscribers had better sleep quality. Another study of Calm meditation app users during the Covid 19 pandemic (Cloonan et al., 2023), participants showed reduced levels of worrying.
A meta analyis of papers related to mindfulness apps (Gal et al., 2021) found reduced stress and enhanced well being for app users.
Truhlar et al. (2022) explored the effect of the meditation app called Ten Percent Happier on pharmacy students and found that regular use of the app resulted in improved mindfulness, well being and resilience.
Walsh et al. (2019) experimented with a mindfulness app called Wildflowers with 41 undergraduate university students and found it resulted in improved mood, stress reduction and attention control among the students.
A systematic review by Tan et al. (2022) of other studies related to mindfulness apps, of which Headspace was most frequently used, had a balanced conclusion. It found that mobile mindfulness apps had a small to moderate effect in improving mindfulness and reducing depression and stress in users. However, regarding anxiety it found that the overall effect was non significant, i.e. mindfulness apps did not have a significant effectiveness in reducing anxiety. It also reported low adherence in some cases, affecting the sustainability of any benefits gained.
Another study by Clarke & Draper(2020) with users of the Calm app found that sometimes the app can have negative effects on users’ mental health as well, for example by increasing anxiety in users. Moreover, the users who dropped off before completing the study recorded lower than baseline levels of mindfulness and well-being.
Research on wearable devices for well-being and stress reduction
Lee et al. (2024) experimented on university community participants in Korea with a EEG based Neurofeedback device called MAVE, with the participants being asked to do meditation while their EEG was measured, and found that the participants had improvements in stress, depression and anxiety.
Chianella et al. (2021) studied the effectiveness of multimodal smartwatch wearables for stress tracking and found that overall they were useful, with suggestions on how to make them more useful.
There are a number of studies on stress and wellness using the MUSE meditation headband. Millstine et al. (2019) experimented with the wearable MUSE meditation headband on 30 female users with breast cancer, and found that use of the headband helped in reducing fatigue and enhancing functional well being among the study users. Ghosh et al. (2023) experimented with the MUSE wearable with guided meditation on 40 health care professionals for 90 days during Covid-19 pandemic and found reduced stress and improved resilience and quality of life. Balconi et al. (2019) experimented with mindfulness practice combined with wearable devices with Neurofeedback including Lowdown Focus glasses (for eye tracking) and MUSE headband on 55 young adults and found positive results in stress reduction.
Conclusion
There are a number of available studies on stress reduction using mindfulness apps such as Calm and headspace and wearables such as MUSE meditation headband. While their exact recommendations and findings vary, overall they mostly report positive results on stress reduction and wellness related parameters in users of these apps and wearable devices. Therefore, such consumer apps and wearables, which are readily available in the market, may be useful for users to manage their stress in daily life.
References
Balconi, M., Fronda, G., & Crivelli, D. (2019). Effects of technology-mediated mindfulness practice on stress: psychophysiological and self-report measures. Stress, 22(2), 200–209.
Bostock, S., Crosswell, A. D., Prather, A. A., & Steptoe, A. (2019). Mindfulness on-the-go: Effects of a mindfulness meditation app on work stress and well-being. Journal of occupational health psychology, 24(1), 127.
Chianella, R., Mandolfo, M., Lolatto, R., & Pillan, M. (2021, July). Designing for self-awareness: evidence-based explorations of multimodal stress-tracking wearables. In International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction (pp. 357–371). Cham: Springer International Publishing.
Clarke, J., & Draper, S. (2020). Intermittent mindfulness practice can be beneficial, and daily practice can be harmful. An in depth, mixed methods study of the “Calm” app’s (mostly positive) effects. Internet interventions, 19, 100293.
Cloonan, S., Fowers, R., Huberty, J., & Stecher, C. (2023). Meditation App Habits and Mental Health: A Longitudinal Study of Meditation App Users During the COVID-19 Pandemic. Mindfulness, 14(9), 2276–2286.
Gál, É., Ștefan, S., & Cristea, I. A. (2021). The efficacy of mindfulness meditation apps in enhancing users’ well-being and mental health related outcomes: a meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. Journal of Affective Disorders, 279, 131–142.
Ghosh, K., Nanda, S., Hurt, R. T., Schroeder, D. R., West, C. P., Fischer, K. M., … & Croghan, I. T. (2023). Mindfulness using a wearable brain sensing device for health care professionals during a pandemic: A pilot program. Journal of Primary Care & Community Health, 14, 21501319231162308.
Huberty, J., Green, J., Glissmann, C., Larkey, L., Puzia, M., & Lee, C. (2019). Efficacy of the mindfulness meditation mobile app “calm” to reduce stress among college students: Randomized controlled trial. JMIR mHealth and uHealth, 7(6), e14273.
Huberty, J., Puzia, M. E., Larkey, L., Vranceanu, A. M., & Irwin, M. R. (2021). Can a meditation app help my sleep? A cross-sectional survey of Calm users. PLoS One, 16(10), e0257518.
Lee, E., Hong, J. K., Choi, H., & Yoon, I. Y. (2024). Modest Effects of Neurofeedback-Assisted Meditation Using a Wearable Device on Stress Reduction: A Randomized, Double-Blind, and Controlled Study. Journal of Korean Medical Science, 39(9).
Millstine, D. M., Bhagra, A., Jenkins, S. M., Croghan, I. T., Stan, D. L., Boughey, J. C., … & Pruthi, S. (2019). Use of a wearable EEG headband as a meditation device for women with newly diagnosed breast cancer: a randomized controlled trial. Integrative Cancer Therapies, 18, 1534735419878770.
Tan, Z. Y. A., Wong, S. H., Cheng, L. J., & Lau, S. T. (2022). Effectiveness of mobile-based mindfulness interventions in improving mindfulness skills and psychological outcomes for adults: a systematic review and meta-regression. Mindfulness, 13(10), 2379–2395.
Truhlar, L. M., Durand, C., Cooper, M. R., & Goldsmith, C. A. W. (2022). Exploring the effects of a smartphone-based meditation app on stress, mindfulness, well-being, and resilience in pharmacy students. American Journal of Health-System Pharmacy, 79(23), 2159–2165.
Walsh, K. M., Saab, B. J., & Farb, N. A. (2019). Effects of a mindfulness meditation app on subjective well-being: active randomized controlled trial and experience sampling study. JMIR mental health, 6(1), e10844.
