Ah, anxiety: a sweet token I picked up in college where so far I’ve spent three years vomiting and forgetting to take my birth control—because I’m a catch. I’ve tried everything under the sun to help me calm TF down (green tea, yoga, jogging, bathing in Kombucha, etc.) and none of it helped. So when I finally decided to see a psychiatrist and he recommended something as *out there* as floating in a sensory deprivation pod, I figured yeah, this might as well happen.
So I went to OmFLOAT in Ashburn,VA to get to the bottom of sensory deprivation tanks—literally. The practice, referred to as “float therapy” consists of 90-minute sessions in a sensory deprivation tank. Each pod is filled with 850 pounds of Epsom salt to suspend the floater and nourish the skin, but the purported benefits reach far beyond being a great exfoliant. Floating without the distractions of your senses has been shown to reduce insomnia, stress, depression, anxiety and even chronic pain.
“Gravity accounts for 90% of all central nervous system deterioration,” explained OmFLOAT co-owner Brooks Brinson. Painful joints, sagging skin, aching feet and bad backs all seem to be common effects of gravity fighting against our inconveniently upright posture.
“Floating is an experience close to complete weightlessness that doesn’t just deprive you of your senses, but relieves you of them,” says co-owner, Amy Brinson. “Freeing the brain and skeletal system from gravity liberates the mind to contemplate spirit and self while facilitating the body’s natural healing processes.” The Brinsons gave me a peek inside the tank, and when I asked them if I’d actually float (I insisted that I’d consumed a breakfast burrito the size of Alaska that same morning), they tossed a golf ball into the tank, which bobbed straight to the top. At that, they left me to it and I climbed inside.
First of all, the pod is exactly as horrifying as you would imagine. You’re literally floating on top of a foot of water in a coffin-sized tank that’s pitch black and completely silent (the blue uplighting shuts off once you close the pod). And if the claustrophobia doesn’t bother you, perhaps your insecurities will! Because you’re completely naked. I started the 90-minute session with the door of the pod cracked because I was afraid of, oh I don’t know, being trapped inside with with the demon from Insidious. But once I got comfortable—i.e. grew a pair—I closed the door so I could get the full floating experience. And it was insane! The water is heated to the temperature of your skin, so you lose all sense of where your body begins and ends. My limbs and muscles relaxed to the point of feeling like I didn’t have any bones. My entire body was weightless (think: naked astronaut floating through space), and with no external stimuli, I was forced to focus on my breathing and heart rate. 90 minutes might seem like an eternity, but an hour flew by and I had never felt more relaxed or in touch with myself. The ~zen~ was real, and I reaped the benefits for an entire week after just a single session.
For starters, I had the best night’s sleep of my life for three nights in a row. I fell asleep quickly and stayed asleep through the entire night. I didn’t feel groggy in the morning and my roommate even remarked at how chipper I was when I was making my morning coffee (typically I’m a royal beyotch until cup #2). In class, I felt more focused and energetic. I contributed to discussions in my lectures and felt more present in conversations. The negative thoughts I usually experience as a side effect of my anxiety (does my BFF secretly hate me, am I good enough at what I do, etc.) weren’t even on my radar. My mind was clear and at peace. I can’t speak for those with chronic pain or seasonal depression (although you’ll find gleaming reviews from those affected on OmFLOAT’s five-star Yelp page), but as a woman with clinically diagnosed anxiety and insomnia, I can say with confidence that one floating session boosted my mental health and gave me some much needed relief from my symptoms.