No need to take your clothes off to relax

People who lay taking deep breaths in a dimly lit room with soft music emerged just as relaxed as those who underwent massages or sessions of thermotherapy, in which their arms and legs were wrapped with warm towels, reports the Telegraph.

While all three methods are equally effective at easing anxiety, simple relaxation techniques can be practised at home for free, whereas massage and thermotherapy sessions can cost £90 an hour.

Scientists at the Group Health Research Institute in Seattle said the feeling of relaxation people experience during a massage could be a product of the soothing music played during the session, rather than the treatment itself.

One of the research team said: "We were surprised to find that the benefits of massage were no greater than those of the same number of sessions of 'thermotherapy' or listening to relaxing music. This suggests that the benefits of massage may be due to a generalised relaxation response. Treatment in a relaxing room is much less expensive than the other treatments like massage or thermotherapy, so it might be the most cost-effective option for people with generalised anxiety disorder who want to try a relaxation-oriented complementary medicine therapy."

Scientists claimed last year that massage, contrary to popular belief, actually cuts blood circulation to the muscles and hinders the removal of lactic acids by as much as 25 per cent.

Thermotherapy is designed to ease muscle tension by intermittently wrapping hot pads and towels around the arms and legs, while relaxation therapy simply involves lying down and breathing deeply with mood music in playing in the background.

Relaxation is one of the key means by which people in the workplace can relieve stress, this new research suggests that we might not have to spend quite so much money to chill out of an evening.