Ease Anxiety by Hugging a Breathing Cushion

A huggable, cushion-like device that simulates breathing could help reduce students’ pre-test anxiety, suggests findings in the open-access journal PLOS ONE. Treatments for anxiety disorders primarily include therapy and medications. However, these can be costly, and have unwanted side effects.

Previous research has shown that At-home anxiety aids including touch-based devices, such as TouchPoints wearables and Paro the seal, an interactive therapeutic robot could complement anxiety treatments.

Now, researchers developed a new, touch-based device that could ease anxiety. They initially built several prototype devices that simulated different sensations, such as breathing, purring, and a heartbeat.

Each prototype took the form of a soft, huggable cushion that was meant to be intuitive and inviting. Focus group testing identified the “breathing” cushion as being the most pleasant and calming, so they further developed it into a larger, mechanical cushion.

To test the new device, the research team recruited 129 volunteers for an experiment involving a group mathematics test. Using pre- and post-test questionnaires, the researchers found that students who used the device were less anxious pre-test than those who did not.

The experiment also compared the breathing cushion to a guided meditation, and found that both were equally effective at easing anxiety.

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Researchers are hoping to refine the cushion for testing in people’s homes further. They also plan to investigate people’s physiological response to the device to elucidate the particular mechanisms by which the device might ease anxiety.

This device to be used intuitively opens it up to providing wider audiences with accessible anxiety relief.

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Source-Medindia