A brief digital mindfulness meditation program, compared to a waiting list, reduced perceived stress and job strain among employees of a large academic medical center. In a randomized clinical trial with 1458 adults (mostly female, average age 35.5 years), those assigned to 10 minutes of daily meditation for 8 weeks showed moderate to large improvements in stress and secondary outcomes like burnout and work engagement at 8 weeks, and these benefits persisted at 4 months. Greater daily use of the app (5 to 9.9 minutes versus less than 5 minutes) was linked to larger stress reductions. The findings suggest that a scalable digital meditation program can effectively lower stress in the workplace.
A randomized controlled trial with 138 university employees found that using the Headspace meditation app for 10 minutes daily reduced subjective stress and perseverative cognitions by week 2, and improved perceived coping by week 5, with effects lasting through week 8. No changes were observed for stressor appraisal. The control group reported increases in stress and perseverative cognitions and decreases in coping over the same period. The study used ecological momentary assessments five times daily across four days at multiple points, yielding 6260 observations. Headspace was effective at reducing stress in a high-stress environment, suggesting quick and sustained benefits from meditation practice.