Does Meditation Improve Attention? What the Research Shows

The claim and where it comes from

Meditation is often described as attention training. You hold your attention on something, notice when it drifts, and bring it back, so it seems natural that doing this every day would strengthen attention.

Researchers distinguish two commonly studied styles. In focused-attention meditation, you voluntarily focus attention on a chosen object, such as the breath; in open-monitoring meditation, you monitor whatever you experience, moment to moment, without reacting to it ^[1]. A widely cited theory paper proposed that these practices regulate attention in different ways ^[1]. That is a model of how meditation could work, not evidence that it does.

Many trials do not test either style on its own. They test mindfulness courses, such as Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction, an eight-week secular form of meditation training ^[2], and most of the meta-analyses below pooled courses like these.

What the studies measured

The outcomes are mostly laboratory tasks. A widely used model divides attention into three networks: alerting (getting and staying ready), orienting (selecting where to look or listen) and executive control (handling conflict) ^[3]. Several of the trials below use the Attention Network Test to measure them. Others use continuous-performance tasks for sustained attention, or tasks for the executive functions: inhibition, updating working memory and shifting between tasks. Most tasks give two numbers, accuracy and speed, and that distinction turns out to matter.

The designs differ in how much they can show:

Comparisons of meditators with non-meditators cannot reveal cause and effect, which is why some meta-analyses include only randomised trials ^[4].

What the meta-analyses found

A broad early synthesis. A 2012 meta-analysis of meditation in non-clinical adults had to exclude almost three-quarters of the 595 studies it first identified, mostly because of methodological problems ^[5]. Across the 163 studies left, effects were about medium for measures of attention, stronger for emotional and relationship measures, and weakest for other cognitive measures, with results varying between approaches to meditation, such as transcendental and mindfulness meditation ^[5].

A systematic review of mindfulness and cognition. Reviewing 23 studies, 15 of them controlled or randomised and 8 comparing meditators with non-meditators, Chiesa and colleagues suggested that early, more focused stages of mindfulness training were associated with better selective and executive attention, and later, open-monitoring stages with better unfocused sustained attention ^[6]. They also noted that many studies had methodological limitations, that negative results had been reported, and that the evidence should be treated with caution ^[6].

Three analyses in one paper. Verhaeghen pooled 40 intervention studies, 18 studies comparing long-term meditators with non-meditators, and 28 studies of trait mindfulness ^[7]. The average effect was g = 0.29 for interventions and g = 0.32 for long-term practice, and the correlation between trait mindfulness and attention was r = 0.12 ^[7]. All three analyses found effects on inhibition and executive control, effects were larger for accuracy than for speed, and more sessions went with better attention performance ^[7].

Attention networks. A 2021 meta-analysis of 87 studies of focused-attention practice, open-monitoring practice or both found small improvements in general attention (g = 0.171), alerting (g = 0.158) and executive control (g = 0.203), including its inhibition and updating facets ^[8]. Results varied significantly between studies, and improvements were larger on accuracy-based than on reaction-time tasks ^[8]. The authors concluded that meditation may improve "some, but not all" attentional processes ^[8].

Randomised trials in healthy adults. Pooling randomised trials in healthy adults only, Yakobi and colleagues found small effects on attention and executive control and no significant effect on working memory, and they discuss why their estimates were smaller than those of earlier meta-analyses ^[9]. The number of training sessions, but not the total hours of training, went with larger effects ^[9].

Randomised trials across cognition. Whitfield and colleagues meta-analysed 45 randomised trials of mindfulness courses in adults ^[10]. The overall effect was small (g = 0.15), and among individual domains the courses outperformed comparison groups only for executive function (g = 0.15) and working memory (g = 0.23), not for attention ^[10]. They outperformed inactive comparison groups but not active ones ^[10].

The largest analysis. A 2024 meta-analysis of 111 randomised trials with 9,538 participants found small-to-moderate effects of mindfulness training on executive attention, sustained attention and the accuracy of working memory, inhibition and shifting, but none on speed-based measures or processing speed ^[11]. Effects held against active controls, though they were smaller (g = 0.192 to 0.394) than against wait-list or no treatment (g = 0.257 to 0.643), and they were stronger in people with elevated psychiatric symptoms than in healthy participants ^[11].

Executive control alone. Restricting itself to randomised trials in adults, a 2020 meta-analysis of 13 studies found a small-to-medium effect on executive control (g = 0.34), seen for working memory and inhibition but not for cognitive flexibility; the authors called the evidence preliminary ^[4].

Focused attention versus open monitoring

Few studies compare the two styles head to head.

• In a randomised trial with healthy volunteers, both focused-attention and open-monitoring practice improved executive attention on a version of the Attention Network Test, while a relaxation group did not change; self-reported mood did not change ^[12].
• Among intervention studies, Verhaeghen found significant effects for focused-attention training; among long-term meditators, the type of meditation did not change the size of the effect ^[7].
• Studies that taught both styles showed no greater improvement in attention than studies that taught one ^[8].

The evidence does not show that one style is better for attention. It also rests largely on mixed courses: the meta-analyses behind the focused-attention grade on LaserMind pooled mindfulness courses rather than focused-attention practice alone ^[11][10].

Three trials that show the range

A few days, against relaxation. Forty Chinese undergraduates who did five days of 20-minute integrative body–mind training, a method that draws on traditional Chinese medicine and on meditation and mindfulness practice, improved more on the conflict score of the Attention Network Test than a control group given relaxation training ^[13].

Three months on retreat, against a wait-list. Sixty experienced meditators were randomly assigned to a three-month retreat, with about five hours a day of practice focused on a chosen object such as the breath, or to a wait-list ^[14]. The retreat improved visual discrimination and vigilance during a sustained-attention task ^[14]. The authors note that there was no active control group, so factors other than meditation may have contributed ^[14].

Eight weeks, against a matched course. In a randomised trial with 63 community volunteers, Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction was compared with a structurally equivalent active course ^[2]. The two groups did not differ in how much their sustained attention improved, although there was some evidence of better visual discrimination ^[2].

Why the results conflict

Control groups. A trained group can improve more than a wait-list group for reasons other than the training itself, such as expecting to improve ^[15]. An active control group is meant to rule this out, and here the meta-analyses disagree: no advantage over active comparison groups in one ^[10], and smaller but significant effects in another ^[11]. Even an active control rules out expectation effects only if its members expect to improve as much as the trained group, and almost no psychological intervention studies check that they do ^[15].

Study quality. A systematic review of randomised trials of mindfulness courses for people with a clinical disorder or elevated symptoms, covering 142 samples published between 2000 and 2016, found no evidence that quality had improved over time on any of six indicators, including the use of active controls, sample size and length of follow-up, although the changes were generally in the right direction ^[16]. In the cognitive meta-analysis, only a minority of studies were judged at low risk of bias ^[10].

Who was studied. Effects were stronger in people with elevated psychiatric symptoms than in healthy participants in one meta-analysis ^[11], while another restricted to healthy adults found small effects ^[9]. The retreat study recruited experienced, highly committed meditators ^[14], who are not typical beginners.

What was measured. Effects appear more often on accuracy than on speed ^[7][8][11], and on executive control more consistently than on other attention measures ^[10][8]. A review that counts only reaction times, or only one network, can reach a different conclusion from one that pools everything.

Breath counting

Breath counting is a simple attention exercise: you count breaths and start again when you lose count. In four studies with more than 400 participants in total, a breath-counting task was validated as a behavioural measure of mindfulness: it was reliable, related to self-reported mindfulness and distinct from sustained-attention and working-memory tasks ^[17].

The same paper included one small randomised online training study. Of the 94 people randomised, 71 completed it and were analysed. Four weeks of breath-counting practice, in two 25-minute sessions each weekday, increased self-reported mindfulness and reduced mind-wandering during the breath-counting test compared with n-back training and no training ^[17]. It did not improve a verbal working-memory task compared with no training, dropout was substantial, and the other outcomes were the trained task and questionnaires ^[17]. That is the main evidence for breath counting as training, and it is limited.

Is meditation safe?

Unwanted effects are possible. A systematic review of 83 studies with 6,703 meditators found that 65% of the studies reported at least one adverse event, most commonly anxiety, depression or cognitive anomalies ^[18]. The overall prevalence was 8.3%, ranging from 3.7% in experimental studies to 33.2% in observational ones, and adverse events can occur in people with no previous history of mental health problems ^[18].

If meditation leaves you distressed, dizzy or overwhelmed, stop, open your eyes and breathe normally. If you have experienced trauma, panic or a mental health condition, consider practising with guidance from a qualified professional.

What is still uncertain

• Daily life. The outcomes were laboratory tasks and questionnaires. None of the reviews above shows whether meditation improves focus at work, at school or while studying.
• The specific ingredient. Whether meditation does more than an equally engaging, equally credible activity is unresolved ^[10][11][15].
• Dose. More sessions went with better attention in one analysis ^[7], while in another the total hours did not change the effect but more in-class sessions did ^[9]. These are comparisons between studies, not tests of dose.
• Durability. The reviews summarised here report effects at the end of training, so it is unclear how long any change lasts. Longer follow-up is one of the quality indicators that had not improved in mindfulness trials ^[16].

What the research says

What this means at LaserMind

We grade focused-attention meditation E2 (conditional evidence) for attention control, with small and inconsistent effects, and open-monitoring meditation E2 for some attention measures. Breath counting is graded E3 (limited evidence) for noticing mind-wandering: it is validated as a measure, but studies of it as training are few. How we review evidence explains the grades.

Our two meditation tools are for practice, and neither measures your attention:

• The Breath Counter asks you to tap the circle, or press Space, on each out-breath, counting from 1 to 10 three times or from 1 to 100. When you notice you have lost count, you press "I lost count" and start again at 1. You can hide the count, or follow a breathing circle that grows for 4 seconds and shrinks for 6. At the end you see how many breaths you counted, for how many minutes, and how many times you noticed your mind drifting.
• Guided Sessions are read aloud by your browser's own voice, with quiet pauses. They include about 5 minutes of focused attention on the breath and about 6 minutes of open monitoring, as well as a body scan, loving-kindness, progressive muscle relaxation and a fixed-gaze practice. You can stop at any time, and if your browser cannot read aloud, the words appear on screen.

Given the evidence above, judge these by what you notice in your own work over several weeks, not by any promise of sharper attention.

Frequently asked questions

How much meditation did the studies use? Anything from five days of 20 minutes ^[13] to an eight-week course ^[2] or a three-month retreat with about five hours of practice a day ^[14]. The evidence on dose is mixed and comes from comparisons between studies ^[7][9].

Is focused attention or open monitoring better for attention? Neither has been shown to be better, and most trials test courses that mix several practices. In one trial both styles improved executive attention compared with relaxation ^[12].

Can meditation help with attention problems that affect my daily life? The studies here mostly measured lab tasks in adults, and they are not evidence for treating any condition. If attention problems are affecting your work, studies or relationships, talk to a doctor or another qualified professional.

References

1. Lutz, A., Slagter, H. A., Dunne, J. D., & Davidson, R. J. (2008). Attention regulation and monitoring in meditation. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 12(4), 163–169. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2008.01.005
2. MacCoon, D. G., MacLean, K. A., Davidson, R. J., Saron, C. D., & Lutz, A. (2014). No Sustained Attention Differences in a Longitudinal Randomized Trial Comparing Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction versus Active Control. PLoS ONE, 9(6), e97551. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0097551
3. Petersen, S. E., & Posner, M. I. (2012). The attention system of the human brain: 20 years after. Annual Review of Neuroscience, 35(1), 73–89. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-neuro-062111-150525
4. Cásedas, L., Pirruccio, V., Vadillo, M. A., & Lupiáñez, J. (2020). Does mindfulness meditation training enhance executive control? A systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials in adults. Mindfulness, 11(2), 411–424. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12671-019-01279-4
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8. Sumantry, D., & Stewart, K. E. (2021). Meditation, Mindfulness, and Attention: a Meta-analysis. Mindfulness, 12(6), 1332–1349. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12671-021-01593-w
9. Yakobi, O., Smilek, D., & Danckert, J. (2021). The Effects of Mindfulness Meditation on Attention, Executive Control and Working Memory in Healthy Adults: A Meta-analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 45(4), 543–560. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10608-020-10177-2
10. Whitfield, T., Barnhofer, T., Acabchuk, R., et al. (2022). The effect of mindfulness-based programs on cognitive function in adults: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Neuropsychology Review, 32(3), 677–702. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11065-021-09519-y
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12. Ainsworth, B., Eddershaw, R., Meron, D., Baldwin, D. S., & Garner, M. (2013). The effect of focused attention and open monitoring meditation on attention network function in healthy volunteers. Psychiatry Research, 210(3), 1226–1231. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychres.2013.09.002
13. Tang, Y.-Y., Ma, Y., Wang, J., Fan, Y., Feng, S., Lu, Q., Yu, Q., Sui, D., Rothbart, M. K., Fan, M., & Posner, M. I. (2007). Short-term meditation training improves attention and self-regulation. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 104(43), 17152–17156. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0707678104
14. MacLean, K. A., Ferrer, E., Aichele, S. R., Bridwell, D. A., Zanesco, A. P., Jacobs, T. L., King, B. G., Rosenberg, E. L., Sahdra, B. K., Shaver, P. R., Wallace, B. A., Mangun, G. R., & Saron, C. D. (2010). Intensive Meditation Training Improves Perceptual Discrimination and Sustained Attention. Psychological Science, 21(6), 829–839. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797610371339
15. Boot, W. R., Simons, D. J., Stothart, C., & Stutts, C. (2013). The Pervasive Problem With Placebos in Psychology: Why Active Control Groups Are Not Sufficient to Rule Out Placebo Effects. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 8(4), 445–454. https://doi.org/10.1177/1745691613491271
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18. Farias, M., Maraldi, E., Wallenkampf, K. C., & Lucchetti, G. (2020). Adverse events in meditation practices and meditation‐based therapies: a systematic review. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, 142(5), 374–393. https://doi.org/10.1111/acps.13225