JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

Mindfulness practices like breathing meditation (BM) are known to reduce stress and enhance mood. One such practice is mindful eating, where a practitioner focuses on the five senses while eating or drinking. A novel set of prototypes has been developed, incorporating principles of mindful eating. These prototypes include matcha green tea and a mobile application that provides audio guidance for meditation during the preparation and consumption of the beverage (hereafter referred to as guided tea meditation, GTM).

Objective:

This study aimed to investigate the adherence to GTM and its efficacy on stress levels and mood. Moreover, these outcomes were compared with traditional BM. Furthermore, other benefits of GTM were explored.

Methods:

This randomized, unblinded, controlled trial enrolled 100 healthy American volunteers (N=49 in the GTM and N=51 in the BM group). During the 8-week study period, participants were encouraged to perform either GTM or BM for 10 min daily. The meditation activity was self-reported the following day, and the time and frequency of meditation over eight weeks were evaluated to assess adherence. Stress levels were assessed using the Perceived Stress Scale-10, whereas changes in mood were assessed using the Two-Dimensional Mood Scale. Other benefits of meditation were explored using a questionnaire. An intention-to-treat (ITT) analysis was performed.

Results:

There were no significant between-group differences in the total time (P=.15) or frequency of meditation (P=.36). The GTM group exhibited a significant decrease in stress levels at week 4 and 8 (both P<.001), similar to the BM group. Moreover, improvements in several mood metrics after a single session of GTM were observed on day 1 and 56, and were comparable to those in the BM group. Meanwhile, increases from day 1 to day 56 in the pre-meditation scores for relaxed and calm were significantly higher among those who performed GTM (P=.04 and .048, respectively). The majority of participants assigned to GTM experienced positive changes in happiness, time management, quality of life, relationships, sleep, and work performance as they continued meditation. However, no significant between-group differences were found in these exploratory outcomes (P>.08).

Conclusions:

Adherence as the total meditation time and frequency over 8 weeks was not significantly different between GTM and BM. Meanwhile, GTM significantly reduced stress and improved mood, similar to BM. Long-term practitioners of GTM may even feel more relaxed and calmer at the state of pre-meditation than those who practice BM. Clinical Trial: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT05832645; https://clinicaltrials.gov/study/NCT05832645