--- title: Does Float Therapy Really Work? description: A strange new treatment method is put to the test canonical: https://time.com/3960510/can-float-therapy-really-treat-stress/ author: Mandy Oaklander article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-07-16T10:16:26.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T09:18:15.832Z article:section: Health og:title: Does Float Therapy Really Work? og:description: A strange new treatment method is put to the test og:url: https://time.com/3960510/can-float-therapy-really-treat-stress/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Does Float Therapy Really Work? twitter:description: A strange new treatment method is put to the test twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Can Float Therapy Really Treat Stress? > Sponsored content. 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Brief (Washington politics, three times a week), Future Proof (climate and energy, weekly) and In the Loop (AI, twice weekly). All are free at time.com/newsletters and together reach more than 1.1 million engaged readers. #### Which TIME newsletter should I subscribe to? It depends on what you follow. For a daily briefing, The Brief. For health, Health Matters. For Washington politics, D.C. Brief. For AI and technology, In the Loop. For climate and energy as a business story, Future Proof. For culture recommendations, Worth Your Time. For how TIME's journalism gets made, Inside TIME. Readers can select any combination at time.com/newsletters. #### Are TIME's newsletters free? Yes. All seven TIME newsletters are free to join at time.com/newsletters. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes TIME's newsletters? TIME journalists write them. Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement.  by [Mandy Oaklander](https://time.com/author/mandy-oaklander/)  ## Mandy Oaklander Oaklander is a senior editor at TIME. Jul 16, 2015 10:16 AM UTC  by [Mandy Oaklander](https://time.com/author/mandy-oaklander/)  ## Mandy Oaklander Oaklander is a senior editor at TIME. Jul 16, 2015 10:16 AM UTC Once a week, Emily Noren strips naked, squishes in earplugs and slips into a pitch-black chamber, where she floats in saltwater that’s the exact temperature of her skin. For 90 minutes, she sees nothing and hears only her breath. To many, this may sound like a recipe for panic. But to Noren, 29, and others like her seeking relief from everything from eating disorders to job burnout, it’s the direct opposite. In recent years, float therapy–once dismissed as a psychedelic thrill for LSD poppers–has emerged as a potential treatment for stress-based mental conditions. Proponents in the scientific community view it as a shortcut to meditation, a way for people to reach deeply relaxed states without even trying. “Instead of sensory deprivation, float therapy is a form of sensory enhancement,” says clinical neuropsychologist Justin Feinstein, director of the Float Clinic and Research Center at the Laureate Institute for Brain Research in Tulsa, Okla. It’s bubbling into the mainstream as well. In 2011 there were an estimated 85 float centers in the U.S. Now, with the rising popularity of mindfulness, there are 271\. (There’s even an annual float conference in Portland, Ore.) Data based on more than a dozen studies published in peer-reviewed journals suggest that in healthy people, float therapy can be an effective relaxation technique. It has been shown to reduce blood pressure and levels of the stress hormone cortisol. What’s yet to be determined is whether people who have psychiatric disorders, like depression, could gain therapeutic benefits from floating. But researchers are actively seeking answers. One study published in the International Journal of Stress Management found that for a group of people with stress-related pain, flotation helped decrease anxiety and depression. Next year Feinstein plans to scan the brains of people with conditions like PTSD before and after they float. He expects to see a drop in activity in the brain areas that correlate with anxiety, which could bolster floating’s potential as a helpful treatment technique. “We need more researchers to investigate this,” Feinstein says. “I think this could be a very powerful tool.” SOURCES: FLOATATIONLOCATIONS.COM; PSYCHOLOGY & HEALTH ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3960510/can-float-therapy-really-treat-stress/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3960510/can-float-therapy-really-treat-stress/"},"headline":"Can Float Therapy Really Treat Stress?","datePublished":"2015-07-16T10:16:26.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T09:18:15.832Z","description":"A strange new treatment method is put to the test","url":"https://time.com/3960510/can-float-therapy-really-treat-stress/","keywords":[],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Mandy Oaklander","jobTitle":"Oaklander is a senior editor at TIME.","url":"https://time.com/author/mandy-oaklander/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3960510/can-float-therapy-really-treat-stress/","name":"Can Float Therapy Really Treat Stress?"}}]}] ```