Book Now
Services & Pricing Benefits FAQ About

What are the Benefits

The Science Behind Floating

Flotation-REST (Restricted Environmental Stimulation Therapy) is a structured way to downshift your nervous system using buoyancy, warmth, and unusually low sensory input.

We’ll keep this page evidence-forward. We run a float spa, so we do have skin in the game. Floating has also been genuinely meaningful for us, and we recommend trying it if you’re curious. The research is still early and protocols vary, but results look promising across stress/anxiety, chronic pain outcomes, and recovery markers.

Disclaimer

Educational only, not medical advice. If you’re pregnant, are acutely intoxicated, have an uncontrolled seizure disorder, active skin infection/open wounds, or severe claustrophobia, or have any other safety concerns, check with a clinician and ask us before booking.

Quick Takeaways

Athletic Performance

Early evidence + athlete reports point to faster recovery, calmer focus, and better next-day readiness.

Stress + Anxiety

Many studies report lower state anxiety and improved mood after single or repeated sessions.

Pain

Benefits show up in some chronic pain trials, sometimes persisting beyond the session window.

Autonomic

Several studies find shifts consistent with parasympathetic activation (e.g., BP, HR/HRV).

Altered States

Some people report time distortion or softened body boundaries, usually described as calming.

Sleep

People often report better sleep, but controlled evidence is mixed for insomnia as a primary outcome.

Session facts 60–90 min Skin-temperature water Epsom salt (MgSO4)

How to Read the Evidence

What Studies Measure

  • Subjective outcomes: anxiety, mood, serenity, pain ratings
  • Physiology: blood pressure, heart rate, HRV, cortisol proxies
  • Performance/recovery: soreness, fatigue, lactate, next-day metrics

How to Interpret a Result

  • Look for “compared to what?” (control, waitlist, usual care)
  • Note timing: immediate vs follow-up effects
  • Treat single studies as clues; patterns matter more

Our Labels

  • Design: RCT / pilot RCT / observational / systematic review
  • Sample: Who was studied
  • Signal: Positive / Mixed / Limited

1) Athletic performance

Deep recovery without more stimulus. Floating is a low-input recovery tool used by high-performance athletes when the nervous system is cooked: heavy training, travel, competition weeks.

Signal: Strong Typical dose: 1–6 sessions Best for: Recovery + downshift

Why athletes use it

Floating gives your system a rare pause: near-zero sensory input, skin-temperature water, and full-body unloading. The point is not “magic magnesium.” The point is nervous-system downshift plus a clean window for recovery signals (breath, heart, soreness) to settle.

Evidence is still early and mixed, but it clusters around lower perceived soreness and fatigue, improved mood, and a calmer sense of “readiness” the next day after hard training.

  • Post-training: reduce noise, soften soreness, sleep easier.
  • Travel weeks: reset after flights, late games, adrenaline spillover.
  • Pre-event: calm focus + visualization (especially if you already do mental reps).

Think of it as a recovery multiplier for work you already did, not a shortcut.

Athlete proof (watch it)

All the G.O.A.TS float (or at least… enough of them do)

Floating has quietly lived inside elite recovery culture for years. Publicly reported examples include Stephen Curry and Harrison Barnes using floating during the Warriors’ run, and Ohio State sports science calling floating a core recovery device for student-athletes.

Evidence snapshot

Research is not yet category-settled, but there are repeatable signals across soreness, mood, and autonomic shift. Below is the kind of signal athletes care about: how you feel, how ready you are, and whether recovery subjectively accelerates.

Soreness. Reduced perceived muscle soreness across the 48h recovery window after hard resistance work in a crossover design.

Caldwell et al. (2022)

Mood + fatigue. Post-session mood and fatigue shifts show up in athlete samples alongside “felt better” recovery reports.

Caldwell et al. (2022) Vatne et al. (2025)

Autonomic shift. Physiologic patterns during floats often look like a parasympathetic tilt (blood pressure down, breathing down; HRV frequency-domain shifts).

Flux et al. (2022)

Overnight recovery marker. Daytime floatation-REST associated with lower resting heart rate that night in collegiate athletes (sleep metrics mixed).

Vatne et al. (2025)

Mechanism plausibility. Sensory unloading plus reduced stimulation lines up with exercise-recovery findings in floatation-REST after maximal eccentric work.

Morgan et al. (2013)

2) Stress + Anxiety

Signal: Promising Typical dose: 1–8 sessions Best for: Stress load

Systematic Review (2025)

A 2025 systematic review summarizes evidence across outcomes and notes positive trends across stress/anxiety measures, while flagging protocol variability and study limitations.

Design Systematic review
Sample Mixed; clinical and non-clinical samples
Publisher page

Lashgari et al. (2025) | DOI: 10.1186/s12906-025-04973-0

3) Pain

Signal: Promising Typical dose: 1–12 sessions Best for: Muscle guarding

Systematic Review: Pain Outcomes (2025)

The 2025 systematic review groups multiple pain studies and reads the overall signal as positive, while noting heterogeneity and protocol differences.

Design Systematic review
Sample Multiple pain-related populations across studies
Publisher page

Lashgari et al. (2025) | DOI: 10.1186/s12906-025-04973-0

4) Autonomic

Signal: Promising Typical dose: 1 session Best for: Decompression

Acute Cardiovascular Effects (Frontiers in Neuroscience)

Some work suggests Flotation-REST can shift cardiovascular measures in ways consistent with relaxation and parasympathetic tilt.

Design Experimental / physiology-focused study
Sample See paper
Full text

Flux et al. (2022) | DOI: 10.3389/fnins.2022.995594

5) Altered States

Signal: Promising Typical dose: 1 session Best for: Meditation

Time/Body Boundary Effects (Scientific Reports, 2024)

A 2024 paper reports altered-state effects during Flotation-REST, including time distortion and softened body boundaries, commonly framed as calming in the sensory-reduced environment.

Design Observational / experimental (see paper)
Sample See paper
Publisher page

Hruby et al. (2024) | DOI: 10.1038/s41598-024-59642-y

6) Sleep

Signal: Mixed Typical dose: 1–8 sessions Best for: Stress-driven sleep

Systematic Review: Sleep Outcomes (2025)

People commonly report improved sleep after floating. Controlled evidence is mixed: the 2025 review notes limited-to-no effect for some sleep disorder categories, even while general restfulness improvements show up in many reports.

Design Systematic review (sleep outcomes vary by study)
Sample Mixed; depends on included studies
Publisher page

Lashgari et al. (2025) | DOI: 10.1186/s12906-025-04973-0