Sensory Deprivation: The Benefits of Floatation Therapy

Floatation therapy which uses sensory deprivation methods to invoke inner healing has been around for decades and sensory deprivation therapy has actually gained attention from the medical field based on the numerous health benefits that can be derived from it. Based on recent findings users experience anything from enhanced mood levels, lower blood pressures and reduced levels of anxiety and depression due to the increased levels of dopamine and endorphins that is directly associated with floatation therapy. According to medical professionals the direct impact of using floatation devices on the human body is tremendous as it assists the subconscious mental state to rectify imbalances in the body and by doing so researchers have found that individuals using floatation devices not only show reduced levels of stress, but they also show an increase in creativity and positivity. Individuals who are involved in sports are also reported to perform better with regular use of these floatation devices that basically deprives us of all external stimuli for a period of between 1 to 2 hours. Other observations have also come to find that floatation tanks assist in treatments that involve hypnosis, advocates skin disease recovery, assists habit disorders and provides significant relief for women who have uncomfortable bouts of PMS due to the considerably improved blood flow which is the direct result of the therapy. The mechanics behind the isolation tank therapy simply involves getting an individual to float in a solution highly saturated with magnesium rich Epsom-salt (giving natural buoyancy and preventing the individual from sinking) solution that is heated to skin temperature (35.5°C) and is about 25cm in an enclosed capsule that is sound proof. This environment makes it impossible for the individual to tell apart which part of his or her body is submerged and which is not and the fact that the individual is left floating, sense of gravity is also eliminated. This weightlessness coupled with the elimination of sight, sound, heat and smell actually releases the mind’s constant preoccupation with the surrounding environment and allows it to focus internally as the brain is able to alter its state of being into lower frequency thresholds giving it the mind the break it needs from external stimuli to reset an synchronise the left and right hemispheres. Sensory deprivation tanks are making their way into the mainstream health spectrum and is rapidly becoming popular throughout the globe and most of those finding these sensory deprivation tanks useful are those who have high stress jobs, those who are overworked, those who have trouble sleeping, those who are undergoing treatment for discomfort or pain and some who just want to unwind and take a breather. The 1 – 2 hour per session treatments are relatively affordable and in some spas are actually cheap and experts in the field recommend that using isolation tanks twice a week could prove to be a life changing activity in terms of health due to increased mindfulness and guaranteed relaxation just by soaking up and floating away in a