Talk by Zoltan Torok

Traditional meditation has been shown to improve sleep, but it is unclear if mobile meditation apps can be equally effective. Zoltan found that Headspace users improved sleep quality in as little as two weeks. These findings are important because they show that this easy-to-use app effectively improves sleep relatively quickly.

Talk by Matthew Zawadzki

Although in-person mindfulness meditation had been shown to effectively reduce stress, the evidence is mixed for the potential benefits of app-based meditation. Matthew found that the type of stress targeted by the app intervention matters, with Headspace able to reduce how stressed one feels generally and how much ruminates and worries but not how much stress a person is exposed to and their perceived ability to cope with that stress.