I’ve Been Giving My Ear an Electric Shock Every Morning for Six Months

Every morning, for the past six months, I’ve been clipping a small device to my left ear — which has a cable trailing down to a control puck — and using it to electrically shock myself. It’s not a painful shock, but a soft tingle — the exact level of current is controlled by the user, through the puck — and I haven’t lost my mind.Instead, I’ve been using Nurosym, one of a newer wave of consumer devices built around vagus nerve stimulation and pitched for a range of health benefits.The vagus nerve is the longest cranial nerve in the body, running from the brainstem down through the neck and into the chest and abdomen, connecting the brain to the heart, lungs, and gut. It is the main nerve of the parasympathetic nervous system — the “rest and digest” side of your body’s autonomic function, as opposed to the “fight or flight” sympathetic system. When vagal signaling increases, heart rate tends to slow, and the body shifts toward recovery mode, and some studies suggest reductions in inflammatory signaling in certain settings.People with strong “vagal tone” — a measure of how effectively the nerve functions — tend to handle stress better and recover faster from physical exertion. And theoretically, by sending low-level electrical pulses through a branch of this nerve, you can noninvasively stimulate its engagement.The routine is straightforward. You clip the device to the tragus of your left ear — the small flap of cartilage that partially covers the ear canal — set the intensity to a comfortable tingle, and sit for 30 minutes. Reading could be a little awkward if you need to wear glasses, but otherwise, you can just use the device while doing any other seated, ambient task, be it scrolling through your phone, watching television, or writing an article. The clip can be fiddly to position, and you’ll occasionally adjust it mid-session to keep it in contact, but otherwise it’s fairly simple to use for the recommended 30 to 60 minutes per day.The clinical backing is more serious than you might expect. Nurosym is a CE-marked medical device with more than 40 peer-reviewed studies behind it, and is used by many professional athletes. Some randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trials report short-term heart rate variability improvements versus sham stimulation, and research on transcutaneous auricular vagus nerve stimulation has shown early, condition-specific signals across psychiatric, cardiac, and neurological areas. Also, probably most importantly, none show severe adverse side effects. The most discomfort I have experienced is a slight sharp sensation when I accidentally set the level too high.My own results over four months have been modest but consistent. My Oura Ring tracks heart rate variability — the variation in time between consecutive heartbeats, where higher variation indicates a nervous system that shifts flexibly between stress and recovery — and, through my use, I’ve seen a small but reliable increase. And I’m not alone in this.Also, in the short term, I feel calmer on days when I use Nurosym. This could be a placebo, but I feel that the background hum of low-grade tension that characterizes most working days is a little quieter, and my patience with minor irritations is a little longer when I’ve used this in the morning. That could be because it forces you to sit relatively still for half an hour and can’t have earbuds in your ears when you’re using it — but my morning is the busiest, most stressful part of my work day, so it’s not like I’m using it while meditating. Plus, peer-reviewed data shows the same pattern I’ve experienced, and the HRV numbers provide an objective datapoint for me that’s harder to explain away.As someone who is into trying health tech and supplements, it’s pretty damn cool — but it’s also expensive. It doesn’t have a subscription or anything, thankfully, but it’s also $600, and the effects are only modest. If you have the same interests as me, it’s definitely worth a look, but if you just want to feel calmer, meditating is free.

I’ve Been Giving My Ear an Electric Shock Every Morning for Six Months

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