Health Update: The Health Benefits of the Coffin-Lying Meditation Trend – What Experts Say

If you’re looking to meditate in a confined and quiet place, perhaps it’s time to climb into a coffin. At least, that’s what a trend out of Japan, dubbed coffin-lying, is promoting. The practice, which involves resting in a coffin for about 30 minutes, aims to help people relax and make peace with their mortality.

To understand whether coffin-lying can actually boost calmness and relieve stress, Outside spoke to two therapists. Here’s what they said.

What Is Coffin-Lying, and Where Did the Trend Come From?

A funeral home in Japan started offering coffin meditations as a fun way to help people get in some much-needed relaxation. However, the trend eventually evolved as a solution to promote better mental health and combat the rising number of youth suicides in Japan.

During the practice, people are instructed to either rest in the coffin in total silence or listen to soft music. People are encouraged to reflect on memories about the people they love, and what it might feel like to say goodbye to them, according to a 2023 study.

Companies in Tokyo, Japan, and Seoul, South Korea, host death awareness events or “living funerals” to replicate death in a safe environment. Some people even opt to wear grave clothes, which in many religious contexts refer to linen cloths wrapped around the deceased and symbolize life after death.

Many cultures and religious traditions have long emphasized reflection on death and the afterlife. Their rituals help foster a sense of generational threads—the idea that death isn’t the end.

Lying in a Coffin Can Ground You in the Present

That same 2023 study found that coffin-lying can boost the feelings of love toward family and friends and bring a sense of meaning to your life.

The researchers conducting the study recruited 134 medical and nursing students from a medical university in Taiwan and split them up into two groups: one that lay in a coffin, just one time, for three hours and another that did not. The participants completed multiple questionnaires, both before and after the experiment, detailing their experiences. Those who tried coffin-lying experienced less fear and negative emotions surrounding death. The effects were fast, often kicking in within a week of the experiment and lasting up to 11 weeks.

Countries like the United States and the United Kingdom avoid talking about death, treating it as taboo or a morbid subject. But by putting you in a position to consider the type of death you’d like to have, where you’d want to die, and what you’d want at your funeral, coffin-lying may “help you come to terms with death and choose to be more present during life,” says Saba Lurie, LMFT, a therapist and owner of Take Root Therapy, a therapy practice that helps clients overcome fears and break negative habits, based in Los Angeles, California.

Renée Zavislak, LMFT, a licensed psychotherapist and host of Psycho Therapist: The Podcast, treats many patients who are anxious about death. The thought of dying is deeply unsettling for many, she says, and coffin-lying may help desensitize you to the idea of death and neutralize that imagery.

Silence and Darkness Induces a Meditative State

Sensory deprivation, the intentional removal of external stimuli like sounds or visuals (a la sitting in a coffin), can reduce brain stimulation and cause a state of deep relaxation. Studies have shown there’s less activity in the parts of the brain associated with rumination and stress during sensory deprivation experiments, says Lurie. Cortisol (the stress hormone), blood pressure, and breathing rate all drop, she adds. “Basically, the body stops scanning for danger and finally gets to rest,” says Lurie. As a result, you’re forced to sit with whatever comes to mind, including the fear of death and fundamental questions about the meaning of life, says Lurie.

Because sensory deprivation enhances meditation, coffin-lying may create a potent meditative state, according to Zavislak. This may help “create a powerful link between relaxation and death, potentially replacing the instinctive link between death and fear,” she says.

On the flip side, soft music and guided meditations can settle a wandering mind. Music sends a signal to your brain that you’re safe and helps you connect to deep emotions, says Lurie. “In a death meditation, specifically, music that is chosen to evoke feeling can help open us up to whatever emotions the practice is bringing to the surface,” she says.

How to Replicate Coffin-Lying at Home

Unless you have a spare coffin lying around—and I imagine very few of you do—finding a nearby facility where you can try this trend in the U.S. may be impossible. In that case, it may be worth trying a version of this practice at home, especially if you are interested in exploring death in new ways.

“You can start simply by imagining yourself in a coffin, thinking about which clothes you would want to be buried in, who you would want at your funeral, and how you would want to be remembered,” says Lurie. To mimic the sensations of a coffin, choose a dark space and a firm place to rest. To deepen the effects, wrap yourself in a tight blanket, wear an eye mask, and use earplugs; or, you can think about what it might feel like to die, Lurie says.

Be prepared for tough emotions to surface and have a plan to tend to yourself afterward, says Lurie. Before jumping back into your day, try journaling to help you process what came up, she recommends. Take a break or stop altogether if you feel overwhelmed. And if you have claustrophobic tendencies, you should avoid coffin-lying, as it may exacerbate anxiety rather than alleviate it, says Zavislak.

Finally, research has shown it may take some time for people to get used to less stimulation. So be kind and patient with yourself if you don’t immediately benefit from coffin-lying.

Is this a wellness technique you would try? Let us know in the comments.