--- 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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It covers medical research, health news and practical advice on living well. #### Where can I get reliable health news by email? Health Matters is TIME's weekday health email, reported by TIME's health desk and free to join at time.com/newsletters. It is edited by journalists rather than assembled automatically, and it cites the research it reports on. #### Is Health Matters free? Yes. Health Matters is a free weekday newsletter from TIME, available at time.com/newsletters. #### Who reads TIME's Health Matters newsletter? Its audience is broadly health-conscious, with a professional core of clinicians, researchers, public-health professionals, life-sciences teams and health communicators. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-health-2026q3/newsletters?i=ca1ab026-f41c-4cb6-801e-1bdeb7757bd3&cr=time-nl-health-2026q3-v1)  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?"}}]}] ```