The Relaxation Response

August 14, 2022 Joe Brady
Posted by Joe Brady on

Relaxation techniques are practices to help bring about the body’s “relaxation response,” which is characterized by slower breathing, lower blood pressure, and a reduced heart rate. The relaxation response is the opposite of the stress response.

Benefits of the relaxation response

With all the stress we face in the modern world, deliberately setting aside a little time each day to unplug from the computer and phone, to set aside the troubles of the day (politics especially), and just simply relax and enjoy life is a crucial skill and has many benefits. Some of the benefits include:

  • Relaxation techniques can lower blood pressure
  • Relaxation techniques can relieve pain from arthritis
  • Relaxation techniques can relieve low back pain
  • Relaxation techniques can relieve pain

What are the different types of relaxation techniques?

Listed below are some of the different types of relaxation techniques.

  • Progressive Relaxation: Also called progressive muscle relaxation, this technique involves tensing different muscles in your body and then releasing the tension.
  • Autogenic Training: Through a series of mental exercises involving relaxation and ideas you suggest to yourself (autosuggestion), your mind focuses on your body’s experience of relaxation.
  • Guided Imagery or “Visualization”: In guided imagery, you picture objects, scenes, or events that are associated with relaxation or calmness and attempt to produce a similar feeling in your body.
  • Biofeedback-Assisted Relaxation: Through feedback that is usually provided by an electronic device, you learn how to recognize and manage how your body responds. The electronic device lets you see how your heart rate, blood pressure, or muscle tension changes in response to feeling stressed or relaxed.
  • Self-Hypnosis: In self-hypnosis programs, people learn to produce a relaxation response when prompted by a phrase or nonverbal cue (called a “suggestion”) of their own.
  • Breathing Exercises: For breathing exercises, you might focus on taking slow, deep breaths—also called diaphragmatic breathing.

Other complementary health practices can produce several beneficial effects on the body, including the relaxation response. For more detailed information on these practices, see:

Relaxation techniques can lower blood pressure

High blood pressure can lead to serious health problems, such as heart attack, stroke, heart failure, and kidney failure. Having a healthy lifestyle can help to prevent high blood pressure. One part of a healthy lifestyle is learning how to relax and manage stress.

  • A 2019 review of 17 studies involving 1,165 participants indicated that slow breathing exercises led to a modest reduction in blood pressure and may be a reasonable first treatment for people with prehypertension or low-risk high blood pressure. The studies in this review, however, differed in how they were done and had short follow-up periods and a high risk of bias. Also, the studies didn’t look at whether slow breathing exercises ultimately influenced health outcomes, such as stroke or heart attack.
  • A 2018 review found that relaxation therapies and biofeedback might be helpful for reducing blood pressure, but only weak recommendations were made for their use because the quality of data from the 29 studies ranged from low to very low.
  • If you have high blood pressure, it’s important to follow the treatment plan prescribed by your health care provider. Following your treatment plan is important because it can prevent or delay serious complications of high blood pressure. If you’re considering a complementary or integrative approach for your high blood pressure, discuss it with your health care provider.

Relaxation techniques can relieve pain

Relaxation techniques might help with pain after surgery, headache, low-back pain, and arthritis-related pain. Some of the supporting evidence, however, has been rated as low quality. Whether relaxation techniques help with pain related to fibromyalgia remains unclear.

  • The American College of Physicians recommends using nondrug methods for the initial treatment of chronic low-back pain. (Chronic back pain is defined as back pain that lasts more than 12 weeks.) Progressive muscle relaxation and biofeedback are two of several nondrug approaches suggested in the most recent guideline. The guideline was based on a 2017 review that found that progressive muscle relaxation resulted in moderate improvement of low-back pain and function and that biofeedback led to a moderate reduction in low-back pain, though the evidence was rated as low.
  • A 2018 study of 58 people with chronic low-back pain found that progressive muscle relaxation helped with pain, anxiety, depression, quality of life, and sleep. Participants had taken opioid medicines without any beneficial changes in the 3 months before starting the study.
  • A 2015 review of 7 studies—306 participants total—found that guided imagerymay be beneficial for adults with arthritis and other rheumatic diseases. The guided imagery was delivered by audio technology and ranged from a one-time exposure to twice daily for 16 weeks. Four of the studies, with a total of 180 participants, looked specifically at pain.
  • In a 2018 review of 6 studies (274 participants), 5 studies found that autogenic training or biofeedback-assisted autogenic training helped to reduce headache pain. But because there were few studies and limitations within the studies, the review authors said the findings should be viewed cautiously.
  • In a 2018 review, five of eight studies found that hypnosis—usually self-hypnosis and often paired with guided imagery—resulted in less headache activity in people diagnosed with migraine or chronic headache disorder. None of the studies in this review, however, were rated high quality.
  • A 2016 review looked at 19 studies (2,600 total participants) on psychological interventions for migraine and tension-type headache. Most of the interventions involved relaxation training, cognitive behavioral therapy, or biofeedback—either individually or in some combination. Fifteen of the studies saw headache improvements, but the amount of improvement differed among the studies. Depending on the study, participants reported a decrease in daily headache frequency ranging from 20 to 67 percent. While relaxation training paired with cognitive behavioral therapy appeared to have the most supportive research, the review authors said that the overall research was lacking in quality.

Can relaxation techniques help during and after cancer treatment?

Relaxation techniques are recommended by two professional associations for use during and after breast cancer treatment. Not as much research has been done on other types of cancer, and some of the research results have been conflicting.

  • In 2017, the Society for Integrative Oncology updated its clinical practice guidelines on using integrative therapies during and after breast cancer treatment. The American Society of Clinical Oncology endorsed the updated guidelines. In the guidelines, relaxation techniques were recommended for improving mood and depression. The guidelines also said that relaxation techniques might help to reduce stress and anxiety and to control nausea and vomiting during chemotherapy in some individuals and could be offered to them.

https://www.nccih.nih.gov/health/relaxation-techniques-what-you-need-to-know?nav=govd

Relaxation techniques can help you sleep

The American College of Physicians practice guidelines (2016) strongly recommends the use of cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (also called CBT-I) as the initial treatment for chronic insomnia. Relaxation techniques can sometimes be one part of CBT-I. But relaxation techniques on their own don’t seem to be especially promising for sleep.

  • According to practice guidelines from the American College of Physicians (2016), research is insufficient to understand how relaxation techniques might affect the sleep of the general population and older adults with chronic insomnia.
  • A 2018 review looked at 27 studies of psychological interventions to try to improve sleep. The studies involved 2,776 college students who ranged from healthy sleepers to those with a diagnosed sleep disorder. About 22 percent of the studies investigated “relaxation, mindfulness, hypnotherapy” treatments. Similar to the guidelines from the American College of Physicians, this review recommended cognitive behavioral therapy to improve sleep in college students. The review also found that relaxation approaches helped somewhat with sleep quality and sleep problems but especially with mental health. The authors recommended that “relaxation, mindfulness, hypnotherapy” treatments be combined with cognitive behavioral therapy as a way to enhance mental health benefits.
  • A 2015 review found that autogenic training or guided imagery helped shorten the time to fall asleep but that the treatments were no better than a placebo. Seven studies involving a total of 284 participants were considered. Because the studies were small and their quality was low, the review authors thought that the positive results were doubtful and couldn’t be generalized to other people.

More To Consider

  • If you have severe or long-lasting symptoms of any kind, see your health care provider. You might have a condition that needs to be treated promptly. For example, if depression or anxiety persists, it’s important to seek help from a qualified health care professional.
  • Take charge of your health—talk with your health care providers about any complementary health approaches you use. Together, you can make shared, well-informed decisions.

For More Information

NCCIH Clearinghouse

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Explaining How Research Works (NIH)

Know the Science: 9 Questions To Help You Make Sense of Health Research

Understanding Clinical Studies (NIH)

PubMed®

A service of the National Library of Medicine, PubMed® contains publication information and (in most cases) brief summaries of articles from scientific and medical journals. For guidance from NCCIH on using PubMed, see How To Find Information About Complementary Health Approaches on PubMed.

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Research Portfolio Online Reporting Tools Expenditures & Results (RePORTER)

RePORTER is a database of information on federally funded scientific and medical research projects being conducted at research institutions.

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Website: https://www.nih.gov/health-information/nih-clinical-research-trials-you

Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews

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Website: https://www.cochranelibrary.com/

Key References

Other References

Acknowledgments

NCCIH thanks David Shurtleff, Ph.D., and Peter Murray, Ph.D., NCCIH, for their review of the 2021 update of this publication.

This publication is not copyrighted and is in the public domain. Duplication is encouraged.

NCCIH has provided this material for your information. It is not intended to substitute for the medical expertise and advice of your health care provider(s). We encourage you to discuss any decisions about treatment or care with your health care provider. The mention of any product, service, or therapy is not an endorsement by NCCIH.

Last Updated: June 2021