Background: Psychophysiological stress and decreased well-being are relevant issues during prolonged social isolation periods. Relaxation practices may represent helpful exercises to cope with anxiety and stressful sensations.
Objective: The aim of this research protocol is to test whether remote relaxation practices such as natural sounds, deep respiration, and body scan meditation promote relaxation and improved emotional state and reduce psychomotor activation and the preoccupation related to the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic.
Methods: The study population will consist of 3 experimental groups that will randomly receive one of 3 internet-based audio clips containing a single session of guided breathing exercise, guided body scan exercise, or natural sounds. The participants will listen to the fully automated audio clip for 7 minutes and complete pre-post self-assessment scales on their perceived relaxation, psychomotor activation, level of worry associated with COVID-19, and emotional state. At the end of the session, the participants will also be asked to provide qualitative reports on their subjective experiences.
Results: Analyses will be performed to test the differences in the efficacy of the different audio clips in an internet-based intervention on 252 participants (84 per group), investigating whether natural sounds or remote guided practices such as deep respiration and body scan meditation positively enhance the participants’ perceived psychological state.
Conclusions: The study will provide information on if and to what extent guided practices can help in reducing psychological side effects related to social isolation during the COVID-19 pandemic.

/pdf/an-internet-based-intervention-to-alleviate-stress-during-2ajqtb4sip.pdf

An internet-based intervention to alleviate stress during social isolation with guided relaxation and meditation: Protocol for a randomized controlled trial

Background: Relaxation practices might be helpful exercises for coping with anxiety and stressful sensations. They may be of particular utility when used in web-based interventions during periods of social isolation.
Objective: This randomized study aimed to test whether web-based relaxation practices like natural sounds, deep respiration, and body scans can promote relaxation and a positive emotional state, and reduce psychomotor activation and preoccupation related to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Methods: Participants were randomly assigned to one of three experimental conditions. Each condition was characterized by a single online session of a guided square breathing exercise, a guided body scan exercise, or natural sounds. The participants listened to one of the fully automated audio clips for 7 minutes and pre-post completed self-assessed scales on perceived relaxation, psychomotor activation, level of preoccupation associated with COVID-19, and emotional state. At the end of the session, qualitative reports on subjective experience were also collected.
Results: Overall, 294 participants completed 75% of the survey and 240 completed the entire survey as well as one of three randomly assigned interventions. Perceived relaxation, psychomotor activation/stress, and preoccupation related to COVID-19 showed a positive improvement after participants listened to the audio clips. The same pattern was observed for the valence and perceived dominance of the emotional state. The square breathing and body scan exercises yielded superior results compared to natural sounds in lowering perceived stress.
Conclusions: This study provides a novel insight that can guide the development of future low-cost web-based interventions to reduce preoccupation and stress in the general population.

/pdf/web-based-relaxation-intervention-for-stress-during-social-4s4o864ucx.pdf

Web-Based Relaxation Intervention for Stress During Social Isolation: Randomized Controlled Trial.

Virtual Reality Environments (VREs) are widely deployed in mental health treatments, often associated with relaxation techniques. The personalization of natural VR-based scenarios is a key element that can further facilitate users’ sense of presence and relaxation. This study explored the role of VREs’ personalization in the user experience with an environment supporting relaxation, by deploying mixed methods. Methods: A non-clinical sample of 20 individuals participated in exposure to a supportive body-scan-guided relaxation VRE. In the personalized conditions, the participants had the option of choosing the context (e.g., sea, mountain, or countryside) and including in the scenario different types of sounds, visual elements, and changing the time of day and weather. In the standard conditions, individuals were exposed to a relaxing VRE, but they could choose neither the context nor the auditory and visual elements. The order of presentation of the personalized vs non-personalized environments was randomized. Measures regarding relaxation, state-anxiety perceived levels, VRE-related symptoms, the usability of the Virtual Reality (VR) setting, sense of presence, pleasure, activation, engagement, and level of immersion experienced were collected before and after exposure to the VR environments. Results: Findings showed that personalized VREs were preferred by users. Participants generally preferred to experience a greater immersivity, pleasure, engagement, and relaxation in the personalized virtual settings. Conclusion: The study further confirms the role of personalization as a component positively contributing to relaxation and engagement. Future research may further assess this effect in the context of large-scale controlled studies involving clinical and non-clinical populations.

https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/12/7237/pdf?version=1655120990

The Role of Personalization in the User Experience, Preferences and Engagement with Virtual Reality Environments for Relaxation

The use of virtual reality (VR) has seen significant recent growth and presents opportunities for use in many domain areas. The use of head-mounted displays (HMDs) also presents unique opportunities for the implementation of audio feedback congruent with head and body movements, thus matching intuitive expectations. However, the use of audio in VR is still undervalued and there is a lack of consistency within audio-centedd research in VR. To address this shortcoming and present an overview of this area of research, we conducted a scoping review (n = 121) focusing on the use of audio in HMD-based VR and its effects on user/player experience. Results show a lack of standardisation for common measures such as pleasantness and emphasize the context-specific ability of audio to influence a variety of affective, cognitive, and motivational measures, but are mixed for presence and generally lacking for social experiences and descriptive research. 

The effect of audio on the experience in virtual reality: a scoping review

Magnetic resonance often produces feelings of anxiety before, or during, the examination. The aim of this study was to assess anxiety and potential causes of anxiety in cancer patients undergoing whole‐body magnetic resonance imaging (WB‐MRI).

Is whole‐body magnetic resonance imaging a source of anxiety in oncological patients?

A number of studies demonstrated that virtual reality (VR) featuring pleasant scenarios and relaxing narratives is effective in promoting relaxation in users, both in healthy and pathological contexts. One important field for application of relaxing VR is breast cancer, because of therapy-related distress and changes in body imagine experienced by patients during the care process. However, comparisons between different relaxation techniques adapted to virtual reality are rare. In the present study, the same virtual environment has been integrated with audio narratives designed according to two different relaxation techniques (respiration control and body scan). As initial exploration, 16 breast cancer patients have been exposed to the two versions of the virtual environment to evaluate effectiveness, pleasantness, overall satisfaction with the technique and sense of presence, as well as the impact on the emotional dimensions of valence, arousal and control. Discussion offers recommendations for the content properties of VR for relaxation for breast cancer patients.

Emanuela Kufel

Papers

Comparison of relaxation techniques in virtual reality for breast cancer patients