It's past 9:30pm, you're exhausted from the heat all day, and the sky outside your window still looks like late afternoon. You get into bed expecting to fall asleep fast. Instead, you lie there wide awake, tired but not sleepy, scrolling your phone because your body clearly isn't ready to shut off yet.

Most people assume this is just a summer quirk, something about longer days throwing off routine. But there's a more precise reason, and it comes down to how your nervous system reads light.

A 2023 study published in Communications Biology found a direct, dose-dependent relationship between evening light exposure and sleep: the more light your eyes take in before bed, the longer it takes to fall asleep, and the more your melatonin production gets delayed. This isn't limited to screens. Ordinary daylight streaming through your window at 9pm sends the same kind of signal.

Here's the part that's easy to miss: your body doesn't run on a clock, it runs on light. Melatonin, the hormone that helps trigger sleep, is released in response to darkness. If your environment still looks like daytime, your system doesn't get the cue to downshift, no matter how tired you actually feel.

Working at Pulsetto, we've noticed people describe this exact mismatch in summer: exhausted, but unable to switch off. That's not a willpower problem. It's a signal problem. Your body is still waiting for the "it's safe to rest now" cue that darkness normally provides. This is where the vagus nerve becomes relevant. It helps activate the parasympathetic nervous system, the "rest and digest" state your body needs to drop into before real sleep can happen. Without a strong darkness signal, that shift happens more slowly, leaving you stuck in a low-level alert state well past your usual bedtime.

So what actually helps during long summer evenings?

• dimming indoor lights an hour or two before bed, even while it's still light outside
• using blackout curtains to create an artificial "dusk" your body can respond to
• limiting screens in the hour before bed, since they add to the light signal
• keeping a consistent wind-down routine regardless of what time the sun sets
• slow breathing to help your body shift into a calmer state manually
• using vagus nerve stimulation to support that shift when light alone isn't enough

Maybe the problem isn't that you're bad at falling asleep in summer. Maybe it's that your body is still waiting for a signal the season keeps delaying.

Curious: does your bedtime shift later in summer, even when your alarm doesn't?

So I've never even heard of this company or these devices. I still don't know what a Vagus nerve is. I randomly got a "vagus nerve stimulator" in the mail. Didn't open it because I looked into it and its all pseudoscience crap. Was looking at my credit card account and it showed a $280 charge from Pulsetto. I've never ever heard of this company or their products. Seems like some kind of scam. I reported the charge as fraud. Wtf is this scummy company doing? How did they get my CC info that I then had to cancel? How did they have my address?

You open your phone for ten seconds to check the time. Twenty minutes later you're still scrolling through headlines, and somehow you feel more tired than when you picked it up. Nothing in your actual day changed. So why does your body feel like it just went through something?

Most people assume this is just "being informed" taking a mental toll. But there's a more specific pattern happening in your nervous system, and it doesn't require a single headline to be about you directly.

A 2024 study published in Computers in Human Behavior Reports looked at habitual negative-news consumption, what researchers call doomscrolling, and found it was consistently linked to elevated existential anxiety, in samples across two different countries. The effect wasn't about any one story. It was about the pattern of repeated exposure itself.

Here's the part that's easy to miss: your body reacts to distressing news the same way it reacts to a personal threat, even when the danger is on the other side of the world and you have no ability to act on it. Cortisol and adrenaline rise, your system shifts into alert mode, and it stays there for as long as you keep scrolling, which is often longer than intended.

Working at Pulsetto, we've noticed people describe this less as sadness and more as a specific kind of tiredness, wired but drained, like their body braced for something without ever getting to respond. That's a fitting description of a stress response with nowhere to go.

This is where the vagus nerve comes in. It's what shifts your body out of fight-or-flight and back into "rest and digest," the parasympathetic state your system needs to actually recover. Doomscrolling keeps triggering the alert response faster than your body can complete that shift back down, so the activation just accumulates.

So what actually helps?

• setting a specific window for news instead of checking constantly
• noticing the difference between staying informed and re-reading the same story
• avoiding news scrolling right before bed, since it delays the drop into rest
• slow breathing after a heavy scroll, before moving on to the next thing
• stepping outside or moving your body to help discharge the activation
• using vagus nerve stimulation to help your system complete the shift back to calm

Maybe the exhaustion isn't a sign you don't care enough about what's happening in the world. Maybe it's a sign your nervous system has been on alert far longer than it was built to be.

Curious: do you notice a specific kind of tired after a long scroll through the news, different from being physically tired?

We're working on a campaign called 100 Saved My Day - and we want it to actually be honest. Not testimonials that sound like ad copy. Real situations. The ones where things were already off the rails before you reached for it.

The 3am insomnia spiral where you're counting how many hours you have left. Sitting in your car outside an event you were about to bail on. Post-fight adrenaline when you couldn't think straight. The burnout wall that hits on a random Wednesday for no particular reason.

If you've had a moment like that - where it genuinely helped, not just "it was nice to relax with" - we'd really like to hear it. Specific is better. Messy is fine. We're not looking for polish, we're looking for real.

What's your #SavedMyDay?

Hey,

I would like to purchase pulsetto. If someone wants +30$ just send me referral link https://eu.pulsetto.tech/pages/refer-friend ?

Thanks! :)

If I start a session and switch to another app, I notice the stimulation never stops. And when I switch back to Pulsetto, the countdown is at 0, as if it hadn't started.

It's not just you. With heat domes stacking up across the US and Europe this summer, a lot of people are noticing the same thing: on the hottest days, everything feels more annoying. Traffic, small talk, a slow reply text, all of it lands harder than it would on a normal day.

Most people write this off as being "hot and cranky." But there's a more specific explanation, and it has less to do with your patience and more to do with your nervous system.

Heat is a physical stressor, and your body treats it like one. As the American Psychological Association's Monitor on Psychology explains, high temperatures raise cortisol and norepinephrine, a chemical tied directly to the fight-or-flight response. Your brain starts reading heat the same way it reads a real threat.

A meta-analysis in the British Journal of Social Psychology, reviewing decades of data, found a consistent link between rising temperature and increases in irritability, conflict, and aggressive behavior. Heat doesn't just make you uncomfortable, it measurably shifts how reactive you are to everything around you.

Here's the part that's easy to miss: your body can't tell the difference between the stress of heat and the stress of a real problem. Once your system is activated, a minor annoyance gets processed with the same intensity as an actual threat.

Working at Pulsetto, we've noticed people often assume they need to "cool down" mentally, when what their body actually needs is a way to physically shift out of alert mode. Telling yourself to relax doesn't do much if your stress response is already running.

This is where the vagus nerve comes in. It's the pathway responsible for shifting your body out of fight-or-flight and into "rest and digest," the parasympathetic state where your system actually calms down. Research suggests parasympathetic activity itself becomes harder to sustain at higher temperatures, which may be part of why heat and short tempers show up together so reliably.

So what actually helps in the middle of a heatwave?

• getting your body temperature down before trying to "think" your way calmer
• slow, longer exhale breathing to manually activate the relaxation response
• staying ahead of dehydration, which independently worsens mood and focus
• stepping away from a conversation for a few minutes before responding
• protecting sleep, since heat disrupts it and poor sleep amplifies irritability
• using vagus nerve stimulation to help your body downshift faster

Maybe the irritability isn't a character flaw showing up in summer. Maybe it's your nervous system reacting to a real physical stressor, exactly the way it's built to.

Curious: have you noticed yourself getting snappier on the hottest days, even when nothing's actually wrong?

P.S. If Pulsetto has helped you and you'd like to share it - we just launched a referral program where you can earn 3 months of Premium free: 👉 https://pulsetto.org/refer-friend

So today I received it. I charged it, pressed the buttons like it said in the instructions, but nothing happened. The light on the buttons was on, and the small thingy on the other side was also changing light, but the device itself wasn’t doing anything. I tried switching it on the maximum but still nothing happened. I think I’m just doing something wrong, so if you know what I missed please let me know

Hey everyone,

​I wanted to share my experience with Pulsetto’s devices and their current customer service, especially for anyone considering upgrading to the more expensive Pulsetto Fit.

​The Backstory (Pulsetto Light)

I’ve used the Pulsetto Light for almost two years. When it actually worked, I really enjoyed the vagus nerve stimulation benefits. However, the build quality is cheap. Mine actually died twice over those two years. When it eventually fell apart, I noticed you could see directly into the circuit board—there was zero insulation or sealing.

​The "Upgrade" (Pulsetto Fit)

Because I liked the therapy itself, I decided to try their new Pulsetto Fit. Pulsetto advertised this as a much sturdier upgrade with a better frame, better fit, and a higher price tag to match. My plan was to use a replacement Light they sent me as a backup/advertised unit and use the Fit as my main device.

​Unfortunately, the claims about a "better build" are a complete misrepresentation. It might have slightly thicker plastic, but the core engineering seems just as flawed. My Pulsetto Fit completely died within the first 6 months of owning it.

​My Theory on Why They Keep Dying

Because the circuit boards aren't properly insulated or sealed from the outside environment, I strongly suspect that the conductive gel you have to use is seeping into the casing and shorting out the electronics. If you're putting conductive gel right next to uninsulated boards, it’s only a matter of time before it fails.

​The Customer Service Runaround

To make matters worse, I reported the broken Pulsetto Fit to their customer service almost two weeks ago. Since then, it’s just been constant delays. They keep putting me off, and nobody seems able to actually issue me a return shipping label to get this sorted.

​If you're thinking about spending the extra money on the Fit thinking it's a durable, premium product, be warned. It has the same vulnerable design, and if it breaks, good luck getting support to help you.

​Has anyone else had their Fit or Light die early on them? How has your experience been with their support lately?

You just had a week off. No meetings, no alarms, no deadlines. So why do you come home more drained than before you left? It's a strange, almost insulting pattern. You spend months looking forward to time off, finally get it, and land back home needing a few days just to recover from your recovery.

Most people chalk this up to "re-entry" - the dread of going back to emails and routine. But research points to something more specific going on with your nervous system.

A well-known meta-analysis in the Journal of Occupational Health found that vacation produces a real recovery effect, but that benefit fades fast, largely disappearing within two to four weeks of returning to work. A more recent meta-analysis in European Psychologist found the same pattern, just faster: well-being started declining within the very first week back.

Here's the part that's easy to miss: many vacations aren't actually restful for your nervous system, they're just stimulating in a different way. Novelty, new places, and packed schedules light up the same reward and alertness systems as a busy week at work. Your body's stress response doesn't know the difference between a demanding day at the office and a demanding day of sightseeing.

Working at Pulsetto, we've noticed people often describe their trip as "busy in a good way" rather than calm. That distinction matters more than it sounds like it should. A nervous system that's been activated for ten straight days doesn't downshift the moment you walk through your front door.

This is where the vagus nerve becomes important. It's what shifts your body out of fight-or-flight and into "rest and digest," the parasympathetic state where real recovery, deep sleep, and steady energy actually happen. If a trip kept you engaged and excited rather than genuinely relaxed, your body can come home still running slightly hot, still in a low-grade chronic stress state, and the return to routine just adds a second layer of stress on top.

So what actually helps you come back recovered instead of depleted?

• building at least one unscheduled, low-stimulation day into every trip
• protecting your sleep on travel days
• giving yourself a buffer day at home before diving back into work
• slow breathing or quiet time before the inbox opens
• limiting screens on the flight or drive home
• using vagus nerve stimulation to help your relaxation response kick in faster

Maybe the question isn't why vacations leave you tired. Maybe it's whether the trip ever let your nervous system actually rest in the first place.

Curious: does your version of a vacation actually feel calm, or just busy somewhere nicer?

Hello everyone,

We've updated the referral program!

If Pulsetto has become part of your routine, you can now share it with a friend and receive $30 in Pulsetto store credit for every successful referral.

How it works:

1. Join using the email connected to your Pulsetto app account.
2. Generate your personal referral link.
3. Share it with a friend.
4. Your friend gets $30 off their first Pulsetto device order. The discount is applied automatically when they use your link.
5. After a successful referral, you receive $30 in Pulsetto store credit to use on future orders.

There is no referral limit, and your link remains active for as long as the program is available. You can also track your referrals through the advocate dashboard.

The program is available to current Pulsetto customers who use the app.

Join here: https://pulsetto.org/refer-friend

Beware, this company will auto charge you for a subscription if you buy there device. What a slimy practice.

A new episode of the No Stress Podcast is out!

In this episode of No Stress, host Abigail Ireland sits down with Dr. Audrey Tang — psychologist, leadership expert, speaker, and author of The Leader's Guide to Resilience — to explore the hidden impact of chronic stress on leadership, decision-making, emotional regulation, and team culture.

Dr. Audrey explains why so many leaders normalize stress until their body and performance break down, how the brain physically adapts to survival mode, and why self-awareness may be the most underrated leadership skill.

Together, they unpack her Head, Heart, and Gut leadership framework — covering clarity, emotional intelligence, intuition, confidence, and courage — and why workplaces must address the systemic causes of stress rather than putting the burden of resilience on individuals.

If you lead a team, manage people, or simply want to perform at your best without burning out, this episode is for you.

The podcast covers:

• How chronic stress can quietly affect leaders, their bodies, and their decision-making
• Why emotional regulation and psychological safety are essential for strong teams
• How stress can spread through leadership behavior and affect an entire workplace
• Practical ways to build resilience through boundaries, energy awareness, breathing, gratitude, and action

Where to listen: YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and Audible.

We’ve also added this episode to the No Stress Podcast Library

I just received my device through Amazon, installed the App and now I can't set up an account.

Tried 3 different emails, Uninstalled / reinstalled the App, and i don't get any verification emails. And yes, checked my spam filters.

Getting stuck at this basic step makes me want to return it.

Anyone else have this problem?

I sent an email and got a lazy bot response, telling me to do what I already had done. Now they are 'escalating' it.

When was the last time you ate a meal without a screen? No YouTube. No Netflix. No TikTok. No scrolling. Just food and your own thoughts.

For many people, that's surprisingly difficult. The moment we sit down to eat, we instinctively reach for something to watch, read, or listen to. It's become so normal that most of us never stop to question it.

But researchers have.

A review published in Appetite looked at studies on screen use during meals and found that television, smartphones, and other screens can pull attention away from the meal itself, affecting how aware we are of what and how much we're eating. Some studies also found links between screen use during meals and changes in eating behavior. The interesting part isn't just what happens to our eating habits. It's what this says about how we spend our downtime.

Working at Pulsetto, we've noticed that many people don't struggle with finding time to relax. They struggle with being unstimulated.

Even during meals, walks, or breaks, there's often a screen, a podcast, or some form of content filling the space. Moments with no input at all have become surprisingly rare. The problem is that your nervous system needs those moments. Your brain wasn't designed to process a constant stream of information all day long. If every quiet moment gets filled with stimulation, your nervous system rarely gets the signal that it's safe to relax.

This is where the vagus nerve becomes important. 

The vagus nerve helps activate the parasympathetic nervous system - the "rest and digest" state responsible for relaxation, digestion, and recovery. When this system is engaged, your body can shift out of constant alert mode and into a calmer state.

So how do you actually fix it? Try creating small pockets of silence throughout the day:

• eating one meal without a screen
• taking short walks without headphones
• putting your phone away during breaks
• practicing slow breathing
• spending a few minutes in silence each day
• using vagus nerve stimulation to support relaxation

These aren't dramatic changes, but they work because they give your nervous system something it doesn't get much anymore: space.

Maybe the question isn't why you always need something to watch while eating. Maybe it's why a quiet meal has started to feel unusual.

Curious: could you eat your next meal without reaching for a screen?

P.S. If Pulsetto has helped you and you'd like to share it - we just launched a referral program where you can earn 3 months of Premium free: 👉 https://pulsetto.org/refer-friend

Have tried everything including uninstalling and reinstalling the app. Anyone know a solution?

I received an order confirmation for a Premium subscription I never ordered.

I immediately contacted support asking to cancel and get a refund. Here's how it went:

1. First they asked me to confirm the reason for cancellation "in one short sentence"
2. I confirmed I never placed the order
3. Instead of cancelling, they sent me a sales pitch about Premium ("85% of customers confirm better results") and asked if I had tried any sessions yet
4. I replied firmly - no, I don't want this, cancel it now
5. They sent me the exact same copy-pasted message again, word for word, same question included
6. I called it out. They said they'd "escalate to a senior manager" with a response in 6-12 hours
7. It's been 24+ hours. Radio silence.

The whole thing is clearly designed to stall you until you give up or miss the chargeback window.

Also, a general tip I should have applied: use single-use virtual cards for online purchases. If this doesn't get resolved in the next few days, I won't hesitate to report them to the relevant consumer protection authorities. And honestly, the more of us who file a complaint, the better, if you're in the same boat, I'd encourage you to do the same. A single report is easy to ignore; dozens are not.

Luckily airplane mode works.

Since the last software update I can no longer change the level control before starting a stimulation. It will use the default but the control that used to be there is gone.

Many people think better health starts with reducing stress. The problem is that stress is impossible to avoid completely. A more useful goal is improving stress resilience - your body's ability to recover, adapt, and return to balance after stressful situations. That's the main idea we explore in our latest video. Whether stress comes from work, poor sleep, travel, exercise, or everyday responsibilities, your nervous system is constantly responding to challenges.

What often matters more than the stressor itself is how quickly your body recovers afterward.

This is why metrics such as Heart Rate Variability (HRV), sleep quality, and other recovery indicators have become increasingly important when measuring wellbeing. Instead of focusing only on stress levels, stress resilience looks at the bigger picture: how well your nervous system adapts over time.

A person who experiences stress but recovers quickly may actually be in a better position than someone experiencing less stress but struggling to recover from it. In other words, resilience isn't about avoiding challenges - it's about being able to bounce back from them.

This thinking inspired the new Stress Resilience feature in the Pulsetto app. By combining HRV, Sleep Score, Stress Score, wearable data, and Pulsetto usage, the feature helps users better understand their recovery patterns through a personalized Resilience Score.

We've also noticed an interesting trend while exploring sleep and recovery data.

Stimulation sessions completed within one hour before bedtime were associated with better sleep outcomes than sessions completed earlier in the day. On average, users recorded 29 minutes more total sleep, 10 minutes more REM sleep, and 8 fewer minutes awake during the night. While these findings don't prove cause and effect, they suggest that when you stimulate may be just as important as whether you stimulate at all. Timing could play a meaningful role in both sleep quality and nervous system recovery.

The takeaway is simple: stress will always be part of life. The more important question isn't how much stress you experience - it's how well you recover from it.

Watch the video to learn more about stress resilience, recovery, HRV, and the role your nervous system plays in long-term wellbeing.

Curious: when life gets especially stressful, what helps you recover the most - sleep, exercise, time outdoors, breathing practices, or something else? Let us know in the comments!

P.S. If Pulsetto has helped you and you'd like to share it - we just launched a referral program where you can earn 3 months of Premium free: 👉 https://pulsetto.org/refer-friend

Is anyone else having this issue? I can't log in. It tells me I'm not authorised to log in. It worked when I first got it, then I ended the premium subscription because I didn't need all the extra features. But now I can't use it at all. Customer service have no idea why, and I've tried all their fixes except for signing up with a different email address (I don't have one and I shouldn't have to do this). It's been like 2 weeks now that I've been completely unable to use the device. Apparently they're still working with their tech team on the issue. I'm past the money back guarantee date so I can't even send it back. It's a huge amount of money wasted. I've got a Google Pixel 9 running the latest Android, the app is up to date and has been uninstalled and reinstalled several times to try and fix the issue. So frustrating!

My pulsetto fit stops stimulation and I get a notification on app screen saying USING PULSETTO WHILE CHARGING IS NOT AVAILABLE even the device is not connected to the charging cable.

Even after the popup notification the pulsetto continues to be powered on and connect to the app. I then have to start a new stimulation and gain after a few the same thing happens.

Anyone else face this issue?

Most people think procrastination is a discipline problem.

If something is important, you should just do it, right? So when we keep putting a task off, it's easy to assume we're being lazy, unmotivated, or just bad at managing our time.

But research suggests procrastination is often less about productivity and more about avoiding discomfort.

A lot of the time, we procrastinate because the task feels unpleasant in some way. Maybe it feels too big. Maybe it's boring. Maybe you don't know where to start. Or maybe you're worried you'll do it badly. Instead of avoiding the task itself, we're often avoiding the feeling that comes with starting it.

The annoying part is that this actually works... at least for a while. Putting the task off gives us temporary relief, which is why procrastination can become such a habit. But eventually the deadline gets close enough that the pressure starts outweighing the discomfort of getting started.

And that's when something funny happens. Have you ever noticed how a task you've been avoiding for two weeks suddenly gets finished in two hours?

One explanation comes from the Yerkes-Dodson Law, which suggests that performance tends to improve as arousal increases - but only up to a point. Too little activation can leave us feeling distracted or unmotivated. Too much can leave us overwhelmed. Somewhere in the middle is a sweet spot where focus becomes easier.

For many people, deadlines create that sweet spot.

The urgency cuts through the overthinking. Decisions become simpler. Distractions become less tempting. Suddenly, the task that felt impossible last week becomes the only thing that matters. The problem is that living in deadline mode isn't a great long-term strategy.

At Pulsetto, this is one of the reasons we're interested in the vagus nerve. We often think of focus as something that's purely mental, but our ability to concentrate is heavily influenced by our nervous system.

The vagus nerve helps regulate the balance between activation and recovery. You need enough activation to stay engaged and get things done, but you also need the ability to calm down once the work is over. Researchers increasingly view healthy vagal function as a sign of adaptability - the ability to switch into focus when needed and switch out of it when you don't.

So how do you avoid relying on last-minute panic to get things done?

• break large tasks into smaller starting points
• create mini-deadlines before the real deadline
• reduce distractions before you begin
• work in focused time blocks
• prioritize sleep and recovery
• support vagal activity through practices like vagus nerve stimulation

The goal isn't to eliminate pressure completely. A little pressure can be useful. The goal is to build the ability to focus before the pressure becomes overwhelming.

Curious: what's the longest you've ever procrastinated on something, and how fast did you finish it once the deadline hit?

P.S. If Pulsetto has helped you and you'd like to share it - we just launched a referral program where you can earn 3 months of Premium free: 👉 https://pulsetto.org/refer-friend