--- title: Sex: BDSM Transports You Into an Altered State description: BDSM, a practice of bondage/discipline, dominance/submission and sadism/masochism, lowers stress and improves mood, finds a new study canonical: https://time.com/4511726/bdsm-sex-flow-state-mindfulness/ author: Mandy Oaklander article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-09-28T17:58:05.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:55:06.915Z article:section: Health og:title: This Kind of Sex Can Create an Altered Mental State og:description: BDSM, a practice of bondage/discipline, dominance/submission and sadism/masochism, lowers stress and improves mood, finds a new study og:url: https://time.com/4511726/bdsm-sex-flow-state-mindfulness/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt090d91f67e3a01b3/6988a7efe20a87b155a92955/handcuffs-bdsm.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3900 og:image:height: 2194 og:image:alt: Handcuffs og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: This Kind of Sex Can Create an Altered Mental State twitter:description: BDSM, a practice of bondage/discipline, dominance/submission and sadism/masochism, lowers stress and improves mood, finds a new study twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt090d91f67e3a01b3/6988a7efe20a87b155a92955/handcuffs-bdsm.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # This Kind of Sex Can Create an Altered Mental State > Sponsored content. 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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=f7bd70d4-f188-41d2-8228-c81c3243f495&cr=time-nl-health-2026q3-v1) ## Video: A 100-Year-Old Sex Therapist on Having Good Sex, Then and Now [Watch (HLS stream): A 100-Year-Old Sex Therapist on Having Good Sex, Then and Now](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/uJFYIrvP.m3u8) (3:13)  _Published 2014-08-20. A practicing sex therapist in New York City, Dr. Shirley Zussman has witnessed everything from the legalization of the contraceptive birth control pill to the AIDs epidemic in the 1980s to the rise of internet porn in the new millenium._  by [Mandy Oaklander](https://time.com/author/mandy-oaklander/)  ## Mandy Oaklander Oaklander is a senior editor at TIME. Sep 28, 2016 5:58 PM UTC  Getty Images  by [Mandy Oaklander](https://time.com/author/mandy-oaklander/)  ## Mandy Oaklander Oaklander is a senior editor at TIME. Sep 28, 2016 5:58 PM UTC Sex, one of the more pleasurable forms of [exercise](http://time.com/4474874/exercise-fitness-workouts/?iid=sr-link1), can do some wonderful things for your health, from strengthening your muscles to improving immunity. An erotic romp might also have the power to elevate your consciousness, suggests a small new [study](http://psycnet.apa.org/psycinfo/2016-45384-001/). The research, published in the journal _Psychology of Consciousness: Theory, Research, and Practice_, looked at [BDSM](http://time.com/3708219/before-50-shades/?iid=sr-link1), a consensual practice of bondage/discipline, dominance/submission and sadism/masochism. BDSM experiences can involve handcuffs or other ways to restrict movement, it may involve the administration of pain with things like clothespins, spanking or verbal aggression—and sometimes, though not always, it also involves intercourse. According to the researchers, people in the BDSM community often talk about being transported into a state of flow: “the idea that the rest of the world drops away and someone is completely focused on what they’re doing,” says study author Brad Sagarin, professor in the department of psychology at Northern Illinois University. The flow state is familiar to pro athletes, prolific novelists, musicians—anyone who loses themselves in an activity they’re extremely good at. Cracking a whip and scoring a touchdown might not seem like comparable skills, but they both require intense focus to make sure it’s being done effectively and safely, Sagarin says. It’s that fierce concentration that invokes this mental state, researchers suspected. To find out, Sagarin and his colleagues recruited seven couples who practice BDSM from across the sexuality spectrum. Two couples were in a long-term relationship, two were in polyamorous arrangements, two pairs were friends, and one pair met the day of the study. The researchers randomly assigned a person in each pair to the “top” role—the person who gives orders—or the “bottom” role, the one who follows them. Each engaged in BDSM for as long as they wanted—most encounters lasted about an hour—while the researchers watched and marked down what sorts of activities were happening. Before and after each session, researchers measured the participants’ cortisol levels and testosterone while also taking stock of their mood, level of stress, their sense of closeness and whether or not they were experiencing mental flow. After the encounter, people reported lower stress, better mood and scored a high level of flow on a scale that measures flow state. “This may be an effective thing for people who otherwise have a hard time getting out of their intellectual head,” Sagarin says. “BDSM, because of the intense sensations and potentially because of the restriction of movement, may have the ability to put someone in the here and now in a way that they may find more difficult to achieve through other means.” To those familiar with the no-judgment, stay-in-the-present-moment concept of mindfulness, that may sound familiar. Other research is looking at how mindfulness may change the way people in the BDSM community experience pain by “really tuning into it, fully feeling the sensations and translating it into pleasure,” says Lori Brotto, a psychologist and professor in the department of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of British Columbia (who was not involved in the new research). Just as mindfulness has been [shown to help people feel less physical pain](http://time.com/4263383/mindfulness-meditation-pain/?iid=sr-link2), it may work similarly in the BDSM community as well as for women who have clinical genital pain, which is a primary research focus for Brotto. Scientists are studying mindfulness as a tool to improve everything from [eating habits](http://time.com/4306564/mindfulness-diet-meditation/?iid=sr-link2) to [children’s behavior and academic performance](http://time.com/4504021/the-mindful-classroom/), and a few researchers, like Brotto, suspect that level of tuning in and focusing can improve the kind of sex that doesn’t involve pain, too. One Brotto study earlier this summer in the _Journal of Sex Research_ found that when women with low desire did an eight-session mindfulness course designed to help them tune into their body, they reported significant improvements in sexual desire, sexual function and stress around sex. “Mindfulness helps people become just more generally aware of their body and their body sensation,” says Brotto. That awareness, plus the proven stress-relieving effects of mindfulness, conspire to make sex better. More research is needed to determine whether regular old sex can tip you into a flow state, says Sagarin. But focus and practice may be able to get you there. “I think that BDSM is one path to altered states of consciousness, but there are many other paths,” he says. “If someone were engaging in sex in a way that they were working hard on their performance and diligently trying to cut out the rest of the world, it’s certainly possible that they could get into a state of flow.” ## Transcript Sexual pleasure is only one part of what men and women want from each other. They want intimacy, they want closeness, they want understanding, they want comfort, they want fun, and they want somebody who really cares about them beyond going to bed with them, and I think people are always seeking that. In every generation. [ MUSIC ] My name is Shirley Zussman. I just reached a hundred years of age, and I am a practicing sex therapist. I was invited with my husband to a lecture in New Jersey, in 1966. Masters and Johnson were the speakers. No body knew about them. Human sexual response had just been published, what I saw was a couple who will say that people had problems in an area in their lives that was very important and they were recognizing that it was all not just. Glamorous and wonderful to be sexual. One had to almost had to learn how to be a good partner and to endure the pleasure not only for yourself but for each other. And I thought we can do that. Why can't we do that? And we applied for training with Masters and Johnson at that time. The patients that came to us were people who read the paper. The only way they do anything about the work that was being done there. And the problems they came with, was somewhat different than the problems they come with today. Mostly, women came because would put out orgasmic, they didn't know how to achieve an orgasm, but they wanted one. It was so over that ,. Goal they had for themselves and how do I get there. That was one Masters and Johnson's contribution that there was a relatively simple way to start learning about your body. In other words, get, get to know your, who you are sexually and physically and that was. And encouragement for masturbation for learning what makes you feel good. I see a big change in the we view casual sex. In the 60's I think it was not just casual it was frantic. I'm shocked at the lack of connection with people; because of iPhones, even I love my iPhone. There is so much less actual physical connection, there's less touching, there's less talking, there's less holding, there's less looking, [ INAUDIBLE ]. People get pleasure from looking at each other. But the most common problem, I would say, in the sex therapy that I live in, is a lack of desire. You have to look at your priorities. You have to decide what is important to make you feel good about yourself and your life. 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