When Meditation Has a Dark Side

Could there really be such a thing as too much mindfulness?

Senserini Lucrezia / Getty September 17, 2026, 9 AM ET Share Save Listen − 1.0 x + Seek 0:00 33:12 Subscribe here: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube | Overcast | Pocket Casts

Twenty years ago, a meditation teacher and doctoral candidate in clinical psychology named Willoughby Britton set out to do a study showing that meditation improves sleep. She divided up the participants, sent them to a sleep lab to monitor their brain activity, and discovered that the results were the opposite of what she had hoped for: The more they meditated, the worse their quality of sleep got. Britton had already experienced benefits of meditation herself, which are well documented in medical literature: It soothes anxiety, chronic pain, and depression, and it lowers blood pressure, alleviates back pain, and has many other benefits, as well.