What is floatation therapy?
a.k.a. Floating, floatation, sensory deprivation, REST (Restricted Environmental Stimulus Therapy)
What is floatation therapy?
Restricted Environmental Stimulation Therapy (R.E.S.T.)
Floatation is a therapy form, that has been scientifically-proven to regulate the nervous system and reduce inflammation in the body. The benefits of floatation are plentiful and wide-ranging, and it has helped people with many types of physical and mental conditions. The most important benefits include:
- reduce sysmptoms of stress, anxiety, depression and PTSD
- releases deep muscle tension (especially in the neck and back)
- improves muscle recovery (reduces recovery time after training)
- pain reduction and pain management
- helps to battle various kinds of sleep disorders
In addition, the removal of all sensory input allows the brain to go into spontaneous states of interoception (look inwards, just like during meditation). This facilitates mental decluttering and puts the brain in a more focussed, creative and productive state.
Floating at a float studio like ours provides space to create inner peace and deeper contact with your consciousness.
This is the reason why floatation is also considered an important tool within self-development, healing, meditation and treatment of trauma.
What is a float studio?
550kg epsom salt + water + a soundproof dark room
A float studio is a place for rest, for unwinding, recharging your batteries and resetting your nervous system.
A person floats effortlessly in warm, salty water, that allows for the feeling of complete weightlessness.
The experience takes place in a soundproof room in one of our specially-designed float tanks, where the salt water and air is kept at a constant temperature that matches your skin.
You pop some ear plugs in, switch off the light and lie down in the water for at least 60 minutes. The goal is to block out all sensory stimuli – sound, light and gravity – to give the body and brain a true rest from the outside world.
Every detail in our float studio is specially designed to ensure you get the most out of your floating experience with us.
Epsom salt is a key ingredient in the floating experience. First and foremost because it keeps you floating. The natural mineral compound, Epsom Salt, consists of magnesium and sulphate and has a large number of beneficial properties such as preventing stress and getting of overproduced adrenaline.
The weightless feeling lets the brain fall into a deeply relaxed, dream-like state and – for some – into a deep sleep. It also rids your body of the everyday weight and pressure and as such, in this environment, muscle tension and stiffness as well as back and neck problems are reduced.
The unique and calm environment in the floatation tanks creates an opportunity for meditation where you are undisturbed on a whole new level. While your body is in deep relaxation, your brain moves down into a theatrical wave state – also called the dream state.
The history of floatation: Where it all began
Floatation therapy was invented and developed in 1954 by neurologist and psychiatrist Dr. John Lilly at NIMH (National Institute of Mental Health) in Washington. Lilly was interested in studying the effects of isolating the brain from all sensory inputs, calling it Sensory Deprivation. Lilly was the first to develop the first so-called Isolation Tank, which was later dubbed the Restricted Environmental Stimulation Technique (REST).
It was not until the 1980s that sensory deprivation, today known as floatation therapy – especially in Sweden, Germany and the United States – began to be considered a recognized practice. Today, floating therapy has gained great popularity in alternative therapy, meditation / mindfulness, self-awareness and personal development. Many years of studies show that sensory deprivation has a wide range of physical and psychological benefits for the brain.
Read about the research behind floating therapy here.
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Research
The effects of floatation therapy are continuously being researched. We regularly share the latest research here as the results of scientific studies are published.
