"Meditation" for rest and recovery
In this piece, I share a tool that I've found to be extremely powerful for switching from a state of "fight-or-flight" dominance (sympathetic nervous system activation) to a state of "rest-and-recover" dominance (parasympathetic nervous system activation). I find it to be far more effective than my mindfulness meditation practice in bringing me to a state of serene calm.
For those of you who might not be familiar with the terms "sympathetic" or "parasympathetic," know that I am referring to terms related to the autonomic nervous system. I will use the terms "stress/sympathetic" and “calm/relaxed/recovering/parasympathetic” interchangeably for the remainder of this piece.
I have historically relied on exercise (specifically powerlifting) to cope with the stress in my life, channeling all that sympathetic energy into weights. However, due to an injury, I have not been able to effectively use exercise to cope with stress. This has led to chronic sympathetic nervous system activation, which drives a negative stress cycle, impairing my body's ability to properly recover from the demands I put on it every day.
I was skeptical when I first came across NuCalm but have been blown away by the results I've gotten from using the product to dial down my sympathetic nervous system to allow for deep rest and recovery.
Nucalm combines a number of different tools to downregulate the body's sympathetic response: Darkness via an eyemask, proprietary biurnal beats, vagus nerve stimulation, and magnetic signaling to increase endogenous GABA production. I've measured the effects of Nucalm both objectively and subjectively
Objectively:
HRV: my HRV consistently shoots up ~50ms
Respiratory Rate: my respiratory rate goes from ~15 breaths/minute to ~5 breaths/minute
Resting Heart Rate: my resting heart rate drops ~10 bpm
Subjectively, during a Nucalm session, time slows. My breathing becomes long and shallow, a static sensation of rapid circulation runs slowly from my arms to my legs, and my body becomes very heavy. It feels like my body is deeply focused on healing itself. Following a NuCalm session, I feel a deep sense of calm and peace. This might be in part because NuCalm stimulates Alpha (7-13Hz: associated with relaxation and visualization) and Theta (4-7Hz: associated with deep meditation and the initial stages of sleep) brain waves.
I have also found NuCalm to be a great tool for sleep latency. If I am ever taking more than ~10 minutes to fall asleep, I start a NuCalm session and quickly drift off. Similarly, if I wake earlier than I would like in the morning, I use a NuCalm session to fall back asleep.
Finally, NuCalm also has a 20-minute power-nap feature where they promise the benefits of several hours of sleep compressed into a short time frame. With the substantial amount I’ve been sleeping, I have not yet put this feature to the test. I am particularly excited to put this feature to the test at the tail end of my next overnight flight.