For How Long Should Beginners Meditate?

As a beginner to meditation, you may find yourself seeing plenty of guided meditations in the 20-45 minute range. Although this is much more typical of someone with experience meditating, it may not be necessary for those new to practice.

So for how long should beginners meditate? I can’t answer that question simply. It depends on the individual person, where they are in their practice, and what they are hoping to get out of practice.

How Long to Meditate

The length of time you should meditate as a beginner depends on what you are working toward and what kind of practice you are doing. It also depends on what works for you!

Beginner Meditation Length

If you are trying to start a daily meditation practice, my recommendation is to start small. Just five or ten minutes a day is enough to build the habit. Meditation can be difficult at first, so starting small can help it be more accessible.

Many practices such as body scans, loving-kindness, and mindfulness of the breath are not strictly time-dependent. Often, shorter meditation periods are much more doable for beginners. As I’ll cover in a bit, consistency is more important to start than length!

Looking at some evidence, research has found benefits of meditation when it comes to symptoms of anxiety with as little as ten minutes a day. Other studies have found that just 10-15 minutes significantly improve emotion processing. Finally, a 2015 study found just five minutes of mindfulness improved perceived stress levels and wellbeing.

The Benefits of Longer Sits

Sometimes when I’m short on time, I do a quick ten minute sit. However, longer sitting periods really do have benefits in my experience. We may need to work up to longer sits, as it may be quite difficult for beginners and without the same benefits.

Specific practices generally require longer sits. This is often in relation to building deeper states of concentration, such as with practices of absorption and anapanasati (tradition mindfulness of breathing). With these types of meditation, we need a fair amount of time to collect the mind and allow everything to settle.

The benefit offered is a clarity and depth to our concentration that simply can’t be accessed in five or ten minute meditations. In longer meditations we are able to see experience with less distraction, often leading to insights and understanding.

You may notice it for yourself. The way awareness works at the beginning of your meditation may feel different than at the end of your ten minute sit. And the same is true as we lengthen this time to thirty or sixty minutes. But if you’re new to meditation, it may be most useful to slowly work your way up (more on this toward the end of this post).

Finding Something Sustainable

Although the longer sits bring different benefits aside from just reducing stress, it’s simply not sustainable for most new meditators. Without some training of the mind, a sixty minute sit can be pure discomfort.

Think about it like going to the gym. You aren’t going to deadlift 300 pounds on the first day or even the first month. You start with smaller weights, training the muscles until they’re ready for the heavier lifting. The mind is the same way; we train slowly, building mindfulness and concentration until we’re ready to sit for longer.

We have to find a length of time that works for us. My experience as a meditation teacher is that shorter periods work well at the beginning, and really help to build the new habit. There often comes a time with my students where they share that they are ready to add more time.

Meditation can feel hard at first for many people, and I think one of the big problems is sitting for too long. If we sit for thirty minutes right from the start, meditation is going to be full of dis-ease and we won’t continue practicing. Sit for an amount of time that fits into your schedule and works for your practice; don’t overdo it.

Consistency Matters

I mentioned it earlier and the above section on finding something sustainable alludes to it, but here it is clearly: Consistency is more important than length. That’s right. I am less interested in how many minutes my students meditate for than how frequently they are meditating.

In my experience, the reason for this is twofold. First, we can build off the previous day’s practice if we are sitting every day. What we experienced or investigated yesterday is still salient and accessible. In addition, we really train the mind more effectively with consistency. Think again of going to the gym; it takes regular gym visits to build strength, not just occassional lifting here and there.

The research supports this. A 2025 study in the journal Applied Psychology: Health and Well-Being found that practice frequency was a better predictor of mental health gains than total minutes per sitting. This held true for effects like general wellbeing and psychological distress.

More research into app users found that frequency of practice was more closely correlated to stress reduction than session length. The researchers summarized “consistency trumps duration when predicting better outcomes.”

Both the research and my personal experience as a teacher and meditator make it clear to me that regular sitting is more important than length. Make it a priority to sit every day, even if it just for a few minutes. Keep you practice at the forefront of your mind by prioritizing it and building consistency!

When to Meditate

A related question I often receive is in regards to when to meditate. I have written about this before in my post Should I Meditate in the Morning or at Night? It’s a personal decision, but I do think there is some information worth knowing.

A 2023 study looked at nearly a million meditators using an app and found that morning meditators were more likely to stick with consistent practice. This isn’t surprising, as research has suggested for quite some time that it is easier to build new habits in the morning than at night.

You can meditate whenever you have time. If you’re struggling with consistency, it may be worth starting a morning meditation practice. I know it can be hard to fit into the morning schedule, but it may be worth it. Try waking up a few minutes earlier if you need to, or move things around a bit!

How Long Until I See Progress?

I think that the longer one meditates for, the more progress they will see. However, research suggests even a single mindfulness session can produce effects like reduced anxiety. This reduction in anxiety was noted an hour after the session and remained notable one week after the session!

Another study from 2020 found that weekly 90 minute mindfulness programs in healthcare workers produced reductions in stress and anxiety after five weeks. These benefits were also maintained at followups in the months after.

In the even longer term, practice can lead to big life changes. One study found that three years after completing a MBSR program, individuals were likely to have adopted a more mindful lifestyle, have increased compassion and kindness, and ongoing personal growth.

This is in line with my experience. In the short term, we might notice less anxiety and stress. As time goes on, mindfulness seeps into our daily lives and we begin living a more mindful and compassionate practice. Again, consistency is key!

Growing Your Practice

It’s important to start where you are and not get ahead of yourself. If you’re a beginner to meditation, start with five or ten minutes. Don’t overdo it. If you try to sit for too long, you will end up not being able to find the routine that is needed for a long-term practice.

When you are ready to grow your practice, you can gradually step up the time. You perhaps should not do this too quickly, but know for yourself when the time is right. With my students, I usually don’t step up the meditation time more than 5 minutes a month. If you’ve been meditating for five minutes regularly for a month, then you can go ahead and jump up to ten minutes. After another month, you can move up to 15 minutes.

I recommend reading my page on Mindfulness for Beginners for some tips, answers to common questions, and techinques for building your practice! I am also here to support you in building a regular practice. You can reach out for a free consultation here.