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A wearable stress relief device: Apollo Neuro

An interesting case study on how hardware can be used to manage stress levels.

The Apollo Neuro is a wearable device that looks a lot like a smart watch. However, instead of counting your steps or tracking your runs, this device uses gentle vibrations to help your body improve its resilience to stress so that you can focus, recover, and get to sleep easier.

Apollo Neuro
Image via Apollo Neuro

The human autonomic nervous system is the part of the human nervous system responsible for regulating the body’s unconscious actions, and there are three distinct divisions.

  • The enteric nervous system governs gastrointestinal functions.
  • The sympathetic nervous system stimulates the body’s “fight or flight” response. And the parasympathetic nervous system stimulates the body’s “rest and digest” response.

When humans experience chronic stress, the sympathetic nervous system’s fight or flight response is overactivitated. This makes it physiologically harder to think, focus, or relax because the body and mind think they should be evading some threat, not sleeping or working. However, if you can figure out a way to trigger a response from the parasympathetic nervous system, your body will naturally return to a state of calm.

This stress relief is precisely what the Apollo Neuro device was designed to provide.

Using the Apollo mobile app, you can choose from seven different modes designed to promote specific states of mind, and you can set the duration and the intensity of the experience.

This tech was born from the research of University of Pittsburgh scientists David Rabin MD, PhD, and Greg Siegle PhD, who discovered that certain combinations of inaudible low-frequency sound waves can trigger a “rest and digest” response from the parasympathetic nervous system through our sense of touch.

There are a number of ongoing studies concerning the benefits of the Apollo Neuro. However, this amazing device has already been shown in clinical settings to improve HRV, or heart rate variability. HRV is the measurement of the rate of change of our heartbeat over time. A high HRV is a good thing because it indicates that the body is resilient and recovers well from stress. High HRV is linked to improved focus, calm, sleep, blood pressure, and even athletic performance.

The post This Wearable Stress Relief Device Calms Your Nervous System With Gentle Vibrations appeared first on Futurism.

Source: This Wearable Stress Relief Device Calms Your Nervous System With Gentle Vibrations

By Aleksandar Đorđević

I am an automation professional and enthusiast, living and working in London.
Helping organisations use automation safely, effectively, and responsibly is what I enjoy doing. I promote responsibly using technology to rehumanise the future.