Promotes Relaxation
The most well-documented benefits of reiki revolve around the relaxation response, which practitioners say invokes the body’s natural healing process.
Dr. Rachel Lampert, M.D., a professor of medicine at Yale School of Medicine, and her colleagues studied 37 patients after having a heart attack. The patients were randomized into three groups: patients who simply rested, those who received a single session of reiki treatment from a nurse trained in reiki and those who listened to relaxing music. The researchers measured activity of the autonomic nervous system (ANS), which regulates heart rate, breathing, blood pressure and digestion.
Lampert’s team zoomed in on heart rate variability (HRV), a measure of the pattern of heartbeats that’s controlled by the ANS. The higher the HRV after a heart attack, the better the outlook for the patient, explains Lampert.
In the Yale study, patients who received reiki had a higher HRV and improved emotional state. “Our study was a very nice demonstration that doing things that are relaxing has benefits,” says Lampert. “We showed increased activity of the healthy arm of the nervous system.”
Boosts Mood and Sleep
Researchers at Harvard Medical School followed 99 patients at multiple sites to determine the effects of a single reiki session. The study—a single arm effectiveness study published in 2019 in the Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine—found statistically significant improvements in anxiety and depression symptoms, as well as pain and nausea.
Additional research suggests reiki helps with depression and insomnia. A 2012 study in the Indian Journal of Positive Psychology looked at 40 women who suffered from depression and anxiety. Half of the group received a reiki treatment twice a week for 10 weeks and the other half received no treatment. The women who received reiki saw significant improvements in both their depression symptoms and sleep quality.