> But have you personally tried it? The most important "evidence" may be how it affects you, personally.

It sounds lame to say, but I agree here. I fairly consistently meditate. I don't spend more than five or ten minutes doing so, but regardless of whether or not it increases an objective measure of my health, I do feel that it's provided me with some positive mental tools for approaching certain situations.

As an example for me is that I used to be pretty anxious about falling asleep, and I think it caused it to be more difficult to fall asleep. Some of the insight meditation practices helped me deal with the anxiety feedback loop. It wasn't something crazy or mystical; I mostly just learned how to stop thinking about something, and was able to stop thinking about the anxiety. Honestly, I don't think I fall asleep any faster, but I do find that I just don't care anymore because the anxiety isn't there.

I continue with it because it's pretty easy to carve out five or ten minutes here and there. I have no idea if it's causing any long term health benefits. Subjectively I feel more relaxed right after I meditate, but that's about it. Honestly, I'd keep doing it just because it feels nice. I don't do any crazy postures or full lotus, or anything like that, so it seems like there's a low likelihood of it causing harm.

My two cents

Maybe it's more important to maintain a state of mind where you could quickly relax into a period of no-thought, than to actually spend a lot of time in no-thought. Regular exposure makes you aware of when you're spending long periods in a stressful state of mind.

Yeah; I think I see what you're saying and I agree. Subjectively this seems to be the benefit for me. It seems to allow myself to reset to an almost default cognitive state when I recognize certain negative emotions/stress.