Comparison of effects of Sahaj Yoga Meditation on Cognitive Functions in practising and non-practising Healthy Subjects

Sahaj yoga meditation practice is already known to reduce stress, enhance parasympatho-dominance, alpha rhythm in the brain and change biochemical parameters favourably in healthy subjects and is also beneficial as an adjunct in psycho-somatic disorders. The presented randomized control study was carried out on 30 healthy subjects (19 Males and 11 females) in the age group of 18 to 45 years. Subjects were randomly divided into two groups: Group 1: (9 Males & 6 Females) Healthy subjects who practised Sahaj Yoga meditation. Group 2: (10 Males & 5 Females) Healthy subjects who did not practise Sahaj Yoga. Training of Sahaj yoga was conducted under the supervision of trained Sahaj Yogi for the period of 8 weeks. Cognitive test battery was administered to all the subjects both before and after the study period.

The observed data was statistically analyzed using Student's t test, Wilcoxon Signed Rank Test, Mann-Whitney U test. The results after 8 weeks showed that Group 1 subjects showed marked improvement only in the Letter cancellation test (time) (p< 0.01), number of Omissions (p<0.01) and Trail making test ‘A’ (p< 0.01) while no appreciable change was observed in Group 2. There was no significant improvement on rest of the tested parameters in subjects of group 1 and 2.The present study demonstrated that Sahaj Yoga practice by healthy subjects leads to improvement in attention span, concentration, visuo-motor speed but with no improvement in executive functions.