Assessment of meditation effects using heart rate variability analysis

Meditation is claimed to regularise the autonomic nervous system (ANS) and causes reduced metabolic movement, inciting physical and mental relaxation. It is being looked upon as the future integrative means of improving quality of life. The most accessible organ for the assessment of ANS activities is the heart and its oscillations. The heart rate variability (HRV) analysis has emerged as a successful non-invasive method that elucidates changes of sympathetic and vagal activity. The alternations of a heart are complex and constantly changing, which allows the cardiovascular system to rapidly adjust to sudden physical and psychological changes. In this paper, the exhaustive overview of HRV analysis attempts for evaluating meditation effects is presented. Moreover, HRV metrics, their clinical significance, applications and reported usefulness in meditation assessment are presented. The variations in HRV have been analysed using both linear and nonlinear parameters for both meditators and non-meditators. The effects of two meditation techniques namely, Chi and Kundalini yoga meditation on HRV have been investigated extensively, and significance of these techniques have been evaluated using statistical analysis.