It is no secret that stress levels in students are exceedingly high. Between the workload, after school activities, and balancing a social life, maintaining a well-being and good grades can be difficult. However, through recent studies done by neuroscientist Sara Lazar of Harvard University and Massachusetts General Hospital, students were given the opportunity to not only relax, but improve their academic success at the same time.
Lazar recruited 18 participants, all enrolled in the Mindfulness-based stress reduction program (MBSR) at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. For eight weeks, students would meet weekly to participate in mindfulness training exercises that lasted two and a half hours. The exercises included body scanning (nonjudgmental observation of oneself), yoga, and sitting meditation that would promote physical and mental awareness, relaxation, and overall well-being. Lazar would then observe the correlation between the effectiveness of the exercises and functions of the brain.
“I did a literature search of the science, and saw evidence that meditation had been associated with decreased stress, decreased depression, anxiety, pain and insomnia, and an increased quality of life,” Lazar said in an interview with the Washington Post.
At the end of the study, participants were scanned at the Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging in Charlestown, MA, as they had been prior to the study. The results showed an incline in participant’s mental awareness and mindfulness scores on various tests, as well as more productivity during school work. Studies following Lazar’s continue to prove that teachers, who incorporate relaxation and mental exercises in their classes, also boost their student’s success.
“Students are very stressed out and if we meditate and relax a little bit, we would relieve some stress and work a little better,” NHS Junior Rachel Daum said.
NHS English teacher Jacquelyn Kaplan introduced these exercises to her own students, and continues to receive positive results.
“Even just the visualizations or the power poses show that even just something simple like that, you can actually change how well you remember something that you are about to learn or how creative you can be,” Kaplan said.
Students agree that it is common to be stressed out over school work as well as other extracurricular activities, and that meditation or relaxation would benefit them as a student.
“Some kids can get very stressed out and it would be a very easy way to relax and get their minds off of school. It will give them [students] time to focus and stop stressing out, and their work ethic should improve,” NHS Senior Will Huegi said.
According to the Huffington Post, another study shows that chronic stress affects the prefrontal cortex, the area of the brain responsible for abstract thoughts, analysis, and behavior responses. As the most evolved part of the brain, it controls many of our everyday functions, which can be degraded by stress. Even small tasks such as remembering to eat breakfast in the morning can be compromised. However, students who have partaken in Kaplan’s exercises have shown a positive response, which raises the question of whether or not all teachers should be setting aside time in class for kids to decompress.
“People [students] would be like ‘Oh! can we meditate today?’” Kaplan said.
Another study done by the American Psychological Association known as, Stress in America, concluded that millennials (18-33 years old) are the most stressed demographic. This means that younger brains can benefit the most from relaxation and meditation, which will translate well into academics. As this practice is becoming more widely used amongst teachers, a less stressful future for students may not be so far away after all.
Image Courtesy of classroommentalhealth.org