When Meditation Makes You Feel Worse
Psychologist Willoughby Britton discovered that meditation can sometimes lead to negative outcomes, such as disrupted sleep patterns. Her research challenged her own long-held beliefs about the universal benefits of the practice.
Why it matters
It highlights the importance of scientific rigor in wellness trends and suggests that mindfulness practices may not be universally beneficial for everyone.
A prominent psychologist and meditation teacher set out to research the benefits of the practice. What she found alarmed her.
Illustration by Ibrahim Rayintakath September 4, 2026, 9 AM ET Share Save I n 2004 , Willoughby Britton, then a doctoral candidate in clinical psychology at the University of Arizona, began recruiting participants for a study that, she felt sure, would show meditation improves sleep.
Britton, a meditation teacher, was so devoted to the practice that she saw herself as a “double agent,” someone who uses science to promote meditation. Although she had grown up in a nonpracticing Episcopalian home, she’d become deeply invested in Buddhist teachings. She read meditation books in her spare time and at one point considered becoming a Buddhist nun. She was confident that meditation improved most things, including sleep; it had already improved much about her own life.
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