I Bought This Touch-Therapy Device at the Height of the Pandemic—Here’s Why I Still Wear It Every Day To Soothe My Anxiety

A few years in the past, I used to be essentially the most confused I’ve ever been in my life. I used to be barely sleeping, consistently anxious, and felt like I used to be barely managing to tug off my very own survival mode with a purpose to operate at work and in my private life. Whereas a couple of elements in the end helped me to reset my nervous system— together with a couple of completely different types of remedy—I credit score the Apollo Neuro machine for serving to me cope and restore a grounding sense inside my physique on a day-to-day foundation.

The Apollo Neuro machine—aka, Apollo® Wearable ($300)—options touch-therapy expertise designed to help sleep, leisure, focus, restoration, and, in my case, a respite from anxiousness. For the previous two years, this useful dandy gadget has soothed me throughout instances of stress and helped me regain a way of calm once I want it most. Discover my full evaluation under.

What’s the Apollo Neuro wearable?

Whereas it would seem like a health tracker, the Apollo® Wearable doesn’t really monitor something. As an alternative, it sits towards the pores and skin and makes use of distinctive vibration strategies to stimulate the vagus nerve and produce the mind-body connection again to a extra current state.

Apollo Neuro, Apollo® Wearable — $300.00

Initially $350, now $300

Consists of: Medium bands (small and enormous bands bought individually), Apollo machine, micro USB charging wire, clip, free entry to the Apollo Neuro app

Supplies: Polycarbonate plastic (clip), neoprene with polyester overlays (band)

Battery life: 6-8 hours of steady use

Guarantee: One-year guarantee

Colours: 3

• Light-weight, unobtrusive machine.
• Consumer-friendly
• Helps sleep, restoration, focus, temper, and extra.
• Analysis- and science-backed

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• Expensive
• Is usually mistaken for a well being/sleep tracker—it doesn’t monitor something

The inspiration for the machine comes from the biology of stress, how our our bodies react in “fight-or-flight” conditions, and the facility of breathwork behind each. From this science (and 60 years of biofeedback analysis), neuroscientists and physicians at Apollo Neuro developed a software that’s designed to alter respiratory patterns to a extra optimum 5 to seven breaths per minute.

“Most of us are respiratory at 12 to 18 breaths per minute each day,” Dave Rabin, MD, PhD, the co-founder and chief medical officer at Apollo Neuro says. “You possibly can induce states of very best respiratory patterns in our our bodies, just by delivering the rhythms that nudge the physique into these states via our contact receptors via your pores and skin,” he provides.

Merely put, the Apollo Neuro machine vibrates to ship particular frequencies which can be meant to affect the autonomic nervous system. This can assist to shift the physique’s stress response from the sympathetic nervous system (struggle or flight) to the parasympathetic nervous system (relaxation and chill out.) Learn extra concerning the analysis and science behind all of it right here.

The way it works

Every Apollo Wearable machine comes outfitted with seven vibration frequencies designed to assist relieve signs of stress by bringing you to the current second and supporting a extra grounding focus. “The rationale why vibration frequencies can alleviate stress is identical cause why your favourite tune calms you down on a nasty day,” Dr. Rabin explains. “It’s as a result of, once we’re confused, we’re respiratory at a really quick price, our coronary heart charges are usually excessive, and we’re normally spending most of that point desirous about the previous or future and never the current second.”

To make use of, merely clip the machine on wherever you want. (It is most often worn on the wrist, nonetheless, the band will also be clipped round your ankle, your shirt collar, even in your bra strap—wherever you wish to really feel your “vibes.”) As soon as it is on, you should use your smartphone to regulate it via the accompanying app, which lets you set your “vibe” choice, the length, and the depth. That is it; the gadget will get to work, pulsing as a lot or as little as you want, reminding you to breathe, focus, and re-center your self, whether or not that is earlier than a giant assembly, after an intense exercise, or just as you go about your day.

My evaluation

Once I bought the Apollo Neuro machine, I used to be determined to really feel a way of peace. It was a yr into the pandemic, and I used to be scuffling with debilitating stress that usually left me feeling exhausted and burnt out. I first realized concerning the machine’s advantages on Instagram and knew I wanted to strive it.

Once I first started to put on it, I wasn’t positive if it was doing a lot of something, tbh. I felt the touch-therapy pulses towards the within of my wrist however didn’t actually really feel a way of aid after the primary few wears. However as time went on and I started to put on it extra repeatedly, I seen how completely different I felt once I wasn’t carrying it. When it was on my wrist, working its high-vibrational magic, I would really feel extra myself, much less confused and extra soothed. This calming sensation was notably heightened throughout instances of tension; With every buzz towards my pores and skin, the machine would blanket me in a grounding sensation that made me immediately really feel relaxed and restored.

What I like most concerning the machine is how properly it jogs my memory to be within the current second. Mindfulness practices corresponding to breathwork, yoga, and meditation are supposed to promote a way of current thoughts, which analysis suggests can assist calm the nervous system and relieve emotions of stress and anxiousness. Equally, contact remedy can “convey us again into that very best respiratory state, which helps us be extra current and pulls us out of the previous and the long run and into the current second,” Dr. Rabin notes.

With common put on and utilization, I discovered I used to be in a position to higher deal with the day’s stresses in addition to stay extra current inside my physique. Utilizing the machine together with different mindfulness practices and remedy, I used to be in a position to navigate my stress in a manner that in the end led me to expertise the aid I craved. Even two years after the peak of the pandemic, I nonetheless put on my Apollo Wearable as a solution to convey me again to myself and remind myself to breathe once I want it most.