Can you meditate too much?

There is no evidence-based upper limit for ordinary daily practice. In a representative United States survey of 886 meditators (Van Dam et al., 2025), ordinary session duration and weekly frequency were not significant adjusted predictors of adverse effects, while meditation retreat participation was associated with more unusual experiences and functional impairment. Retreat intensity is difficult to interpret because it bundles long practice with silence, sleep changes, dietary changes, social context and participant self-selection. For everyday practice at the lengths discussed here, no study has found ordinary session length to be a significant adjusted predictor of adverse effects, though adverse-event measurement in this literature is inconsistent.