EVIDENCE SPOTLIGHT: Vibroacoustic Stimulation and Stress Regulation
STUDY OVERVIEW
Stress can affect the body, brain, attention, emotional regulation, cardiovascular function, and the balance between the sympathetic “fight-or-flight” response and the parasympathetic “rest-and-digest” response.
This study examined whether a single session of Vibroacoustic Sound Massage, or VSM, could influence psychological, physiological, and cognitive indicators of stress.
Thirty-eight adults completed a 45-minute session while lying on a bed-like vibroacoustic device. Participants heard a specially designed soundscape through headphones while low-frequency bass vibrations were delivered through transducers built into the platform.
Researchers measured brain activity using electroencephalography, heart activity and heart-rate variability using electrocardiography, and perceived stress using the Perceived Stress Scale.
The findings showed reduced heart rate, increased heart-rate variability and parasympathetic activity, and EEG changes associated with greater concentration. Lower arousal was also observed, although that effect could not be clearly separated from the effects of lying quietly with closed eyes.
The researchers used the term “vibroacoustic stimulation” because they were describing the specific delivery of sound and vibration tested in the study. This intervention falls within the broader field of vibroacoustic therapy, but the study’s original terminology is retained for accuracy.
STUDY DETAILS
Study Type: Single-blind, within-subject mixed-methods study
Participants Analyzed: 38 adults
Participants Recruited: 40 adults; two data sets were excluded because the sessions ended prematurely
Age Range: 20–35 years
Mean Age: 28 years
Gender: 13 men and 27 women were recruited
Session Length: 45 minutes of Vibroacoustic Sound Massage
Participant Position: Lying flat in a supine position with eyes closed
Frequency Range: 20–80 Hz bass frequencies incorporated into the soundscape
Equipment: VibroAcoustics Bass Module with three transducers
Audio Delivery: Bose QuietComfort 35 II noise-cancelling headphones
Comparison Condition: Within-participant resting and activity stages; no separate control or sham group
Primary Focus: Cognitive, physiological, and psychological stress
Research Setting: National Institute of Public Health, Copenhagen, Denmark
WHAT THEY DID
Participants were recruited through social media. People with previous Vibroacoustic Sound Massage experience, pre-existing mental health conditions, or chronic pain were excluded.
Each participant completed a single experimental session lasting approximately 70 minutes. Throughout the study, participants wore:
A Muse S EEG headband to record brainwave activity
A Polar H10 chest strap to record heart rate and heart-rate variability
The session included six stages:
Five minutes of normal seated activity
Five minutes of reading aloud
Two minutes resting on the vibroacoustic platform with eyes closed
Forty-five minutes of Vibroacoustic Sound Massage
Five minutes of quiet rest immediately after VSM
Five minutes of reading aloud again
During the VSM session, participants lay on a wooden, mattress-sized platform containing three transducers. They heard a specially designed ambient soundscape through headphones while receiving tactile vibration through the platform.
The soundscape included nature recordings, repetitive rhythms, electronic harmonies, Eastern instrumentation, and bass frequencies between 20 and 80 Hz.
Researchers compared EEG and cardiovascular measurements across the different stages. They also used participants’ Perceived Stress Scale scores to examine whether people reporting higher stress responded differently from those reporting lower stress.
OUTCOMES MEASURED
The researchers measured three broad areas of stress.
Cognitive stress
Brain activity was recorded using EEG. The researchers evaluated:
Concentration and focus using the theta-to-beta ratio
Arousal and relaxation using the beta-to-alpha ratio
Well-being using frontal alpha asymmetry
Physiological stress
Heart activity was measured using ECG and heart-rate variability indicators, including:
Mean heart rate
Mean heart-rate variability
LF/HF ratio
SDNN
Low-frequency power
RMSSD
High-frequency power
These measurements were used to examine sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous-system activity.
Psychological stress
Participants completed the Perceived Stress Scale, or PSS-10.
The researchers used those scores to divide participants into:
Low-Stress Group: PSS-10 score of 24 or lower
High-Stress Group: PSS-10 score of 25 or higher
The PSS-10 was administered before and after the intervention. However, the reported analysis primarily used participants’ initial scores to classify them into lower- and higher-stress groups and examine whether baseline perceived stress was associated with physiological or cognitive responses to VSM. The article did not present a straightforward pre-to-post reduction in PSS-10 scores as a principal finding.
Researchers also collected participants’ verbal descriptions of their experiences after the intervention.
MAJOR FINDINGS
Heart rate decreased
Heart rate decreased progressively across the resting and VSM stages.
After participants had already rested quietly in a supine position, their heart rate decreased significantly further during VSM.
Mean heart rate fell into the range of approximately 60–65 beats per minute during VSM and the immediate post-VSM rest period.
The reduction from the resting stage to VSM was statistically significant at p < 0.001.
The authors interpreted this as evidence that VSM produced a physiological state consistent with greater rest and relaxation beyond the effect of lying down quietly alone.
Heart-rate variability increased
Mean heart-rate variability increased by approximately 30% after the resting stage and remained elevated during VSM and the immediate post-session rest period.
The difference between the resting stage and VSM was statistically significant at p < 0.001.
Measures associated with parasympathetic activity, including RMSSD and high-frequency power, also increased during VSM and remained elevated after the stimulation ended.
Together, these findings indicate a shift toward greater parasympathetic, or “rest-and-digest,” nervous-system activity.
Sympathetic dominance decreased
The LF/HF ratio decreased by almost 60% from the resting stage to VSM.
This change was statistically significant at p < 0.001.
Low-frequency power, one of the measures used by the researchers to examine sympathetic activity, also decreased during VSM.
However, SDNN did not change in the expected direction and produced findings that conflicted with some of the other physiological indicators. The authors cautioned against overinterpreting that single measure.
Concentration increased
The theta-to-beta ratio decreased significantly during VSM compared with the preceding rest period and the reading stages.
A lower theta-to-beta ratio was interpreted as:
Reduced mind-wandering
Greater concentration
Increased focus on the sensory experience
The difference between the resting condition and VSM was statistically significant at p = 0.018.
The authors emphasized that this did not necessarily mean participants were more prepared to complete ordinary cognitive tasks. Instead, their attention appeared to become more focused on the immersive sound-and-vibration experience.
Arousal decreased, but the specific VSM effect was unclear
The beta-to-alpha ratio decreased, indicating lower arousal and greater relaxation.
However, this measure was already reduced during the quiet resting stage before VSM and did not decrease significantly further once the stimulation began.
This means the study could not determine whether the additional relaxation was caused specifically by VSM or by lying quietly with closed eyes.
VSM did not interfere with the relaxed state, but the researchers could not establish a distinct VSM-specific effect for this outcome.
Well-being did not improve significantly
Frontal alpha asymmetry, the study’s EEG measure of well-being, did not show a statistically significant change in average levels.
The variability between participants did become significantly smaller during VSM. The researchers suggested that participants entered a more similar state during the intervention, but this did not establish that overall well-being had significantly improved.
ADDITIONAL REPORTED BENEFITS
Participants described the experience using themes of:
Deep relaxation
Calmness
Safety and comfort
Reduced racing thoughts
Physical lightness
Mind-body connection
Immersion in sound and vibration
Altered awareness of time
Creative or visually vivid experiences
Some participants compared the experience with floating, being under a weighted blanket, entering a meditative state, or feeling temporarily removed from ordinary thought.
These first-person reports were consistent with several EEG findings related to concentration and relaxation. However, they were qualitative observations rather than standardized clinical outcome measures.
The researchers also found that responses differed according to baseline perceived stress.
Participants with higher PSS-10 scores showed a greater reduction in certain measures associated with sympathetic activity. In contrast, participants with lower stress scores showed stronger increases in measures associated with parasympathetic activity.
The study, therefore, did not support a simple conclusion that people with higher perceived stress benefited more overall. Different stress groups appeared to respond through different aspects of autonomic regulation.
CLINICAL IMPLICATIONS
This study suggests that Vibroacoustic Sound Massage may support short-term physiological stress regulation.
The strongest findings involved:
Reduced heart rate
Increased heart-rate variability
Increased parasympathetic activity
Reduced sympathetic dominance
Increased concentration on the sensory experience
The inclusion of EEG and ECG measures is important because the findings were not based solely on participants saying that they felt relaxed. The researchers documented measurable changes in brain and cardiovascular activity.
The study also attempted to separate the effects of VSM from quiet rest. Some physiological changes, including further reductions in heart rate and changes in several HRV measures, occurred after the resting stage and were therefore more plausibly associated with the intervention itself.
However, the findings should be interpreted with substantial caution:
The study included only 38 participants.
The sample consisted primarily of young, educated adults.
The study did not include people with chronic pain or diagnosed mental-health conditions.
There was no separate control, placebo, or sham group.
Participants received only one VSM session.
The researchers could not separate the effects of sound, vibration, the soundscape, headphones, environment, expectations, and lying quietly.
Long-term effects were not measured.
The 45-minute treatment duration may not be practical in many clinical or workplace settings.
Some physiological measures produced conflicting results.
Although the PSS-10 was administered before and after VSM, the reported results focused primarily on baseline stress groupings and their relationship to physiological responses rather than demonstrating a clear pre-to-post reduction in perceived stress.
The study did not establish that VSM is equivalent to clinical vagus-nerve stimulation.
The findings support further investigation of VSM as a complementary stress-management approach, not as a replacement for medical or mental-health treatment.
RELEVANCE TO SICKLE CELL SUPPORT
This study did not involve people with sickle cell disease. In fact, individuals with chronic pain were excluded.
It was selected because stress regulation is relevant to supportive care for people living with sickle cell disease. Recurrent pain, uncertainty about symptoms, medical appointments, disrupted sleep, fatigue, and the emotional burden of chronic illness can contribute to sustained physiological and psychological stress.
The study found that a single vibroacoustic session was associated with:
Lower heart rate
Increased heart-rate variability
Greater parasympathetic activity
Reduced sympathetic dominance
Lower arousal was observed across the resting, VSM, and immediate post-VSM stages, although the specific contribution of VSM could not be separated from quiet rest.
Increased focus on the immediate sensory experience
These findings suggest that vibroacoustic approaches may warrant further study as tools for relaxation and nervous-system regulation.
However, the results do not show that VAT treats sickle cell disease, prevents vaso-occlusive crises, reduces sickle cell pain, or produces the same physiological effects in people living with sickle cell disease.
Because people with chronic pain were excluded, the study provides evidence about general stress regulation in younger adults—not direct evidence about stress responses in chronic-pain or sickle cell populations.
Research involving people with sickle cell disease is still needed.
WHY IT MATTERS
Stress is not only a subjective feeling. It can also be reflected in heart rate, heart-rate variability, autonomic nervous-system activity, attention, and patterns of brain activity.
This study is notable because it evaluated several of these systems at the same time.
The researchers combined:
EEG measurements
ECG and heart-rate variability
Perceived-stress scores
Participant descriptions of the experience
The findings provide preliminary evidence that vibroacoustic stimulation may influence physiological stress regulation beyond quiet rest alone.
They also reveal that the effects were not uniform. Some outcomes clearly changed during VSM, while others appeared to result mainly from resting quietly. Participants with higher and lower perceived stress also showed different autonomic-response patterns.
That complexity is valuable. It suggests that VAT research should move beyond the simple question of whether people “feel relaxed” and examine which physiological systems respond, how individual differences affect outcomes, and which components of the intervention produce those changes.
PUBLICATION & RESEARCH ACCESS
Study: Effects of Vibroacoustic Stimulation on Psychological, Physiological, and Cognitive Stress
Authors: Charlotte Fooks and Oliver Niebuhr
Journal: Sensors
Year: 2024
Volume: 24
Article Number: 5924
Published: September 12, 2024
Study Classification: Single-blind, within-subject mixed-methods study
Institution: Centre for Industrial Electronics, University of Southern Denmark
Research Location: National Institute of Public Health, Copenhagen, Denmark
DOI: 10.3390/s24185924
Research Access: Open-access full-text article published under a Creative Commons Attribution license