I’ve been feeling stressed, but I wasn’t too sure about what to do about it. I couldn’t escape my assignments, and I couldn’t get more sleep even if I wanted to. This dilemma made me consider the role faith played in my life. Whenever I prayed at night before I went to sleep, I would yawn during prayer. It was as if my body knew that after praying, I would go to sleep. Because of this, praying acted as a cue. If praying could prepare me to go to sleep, then could praying help me calm down when I’m feeling stressed?
Stress
What is stress? According to Merriam-Webster, stress is a “constraining force or influence: such as physical, chemical, or emotional factor that causes bodily or mental tension and may be a factor in disease causation.” Chronic stress releases stress hormones for a long period of time, which can harm your body and mind, leading to headaches, poor sleep, heart disease, and weakening of your immune system. Cortisol is one of these stress hormones, and it helps your body operate in a fight-or-flight situation, in which stress induces, by increasing sugar in the blood and availability of tissue repairing substances and helping the brain use the sugar better. Additionally, it slows body functions, such as the digestive system, reproductive system, and growth processes, that “are not needed or harmful in a fight-or-flight situation.”
Prayer
So how can prayer be related to the lowering of stress? First of all, what is prayer? According to Merriam-Webster, prayer is an address (such as a petition) to God or a god in word or thought. Types of prayer include “benedictions (blessings), litanies (alternate statements, titles of the deity or deities, or petitions and responses), ceremonial and ritualistic prayers, free prayers (in intent following no fixed form), repetition or formula prayers (e.g., the repetition of the name of Jesus in Eastern Orthodox Hesychasm, a quietistic monastic movement, or the repetition of the name of Amida Buddha in Japanese Pure Land Buddhism), hymns, doxologies (statements of praise or glory), and other forms.” An example of prayer is the “Our Father” from Roman Catholicism, which consists of 10 lines of prayer.
Effect of Prayer on Mental and Physical Health
That being said, “A randomized trial of the effect of prayer on depression and anxiety” by Peter A Boelens 1, Roy R Reeves, William H Replogle, Harold G Koenig was conducted in 2009 with the objective “to investigate the effect of direct contact person-to-person prayer on depression, anxiety, positive emotions, and salivary cortisol levels.” As a result, “participants receiving the prayer intervention showed significant improvement of depression and anxiety, as well as increases of daily spiritual experiences and optimism compared to controls (p < 0.01 in all cases). Subjects in the prayer group maintained these significant improvements (p < 0.01 in all cases) for a duration of at least 1 month after the final prayer session. Participants in the control group did not show significant changes during the study. Cortisol levels did not differ significantly between intervention and control groups, or between pre- and post-prayer conditions." That means that although there was no significant evidence that prayer had an effect on lowering cortisol levels, there was significant evidence to suggest that prayer improves depression and anxiety.
In 2016, “Private prayer associations with depression, anxiety and other health conditions: an analytical review of clinical studies” by James W Anderson and Paige A Nunnelley was conducted. They “critically analyze[d] appropriate clinical studies to assess the relationship between health conditions and the frequency of private prayer.” Ultimately, they found that “optimism as well as coping were significantly improved by prayer in four studies (P value, P < 0.01). In 10 studies of mental health conditions-including anxiety and confusion-there was a significant benefit associated with prayer (P < 0.01), In the reviewed studies, prayer did not have a significant effect on physical health or blood pressure." That means that this analytical review of many clinical studies supports the previous paper. Essentially, although prayer did not have a significant effect on physical health, there was significant evidence to suggest that mental health improved with prayer.
Overall, if prayer can significantly improve mental health, such as depression, anxiety, optimism, coping, and confusion, there is a chance that it can improve the psychological effects of stress. However, it may not significantly improve physical health and lower cortisol levels. Ultimately, more studies and experiments need to be done to be certain, but according to this experiment and analytical review, it doesn’t hurt to pray if you believe in a faith or if you are interested in getting to know a faith. At the end of the day, regardless of my stress levels, I think I’ll take the time to pray more.