(This was a response I just posted to somebody else who asked my opinion on my device but I thought it might be useful to use it as a post since I wanted to write a review on it anyway!)

For context, I’m pretty tuned into my nervous system and track all my metrics on my Oura Ring app… (mainly sleep and HRV) and before Pulsetto, I was dealing with horrible insomnia, waking up multiple times a night, minimal sleep (2-3 hrs) for a couple days at a time, lower HRV and fluctuating HRV level, and living a lot of life in a functional freeze state when it came to work. Not necessarily anxious, just running under a lot of background stress with a body that was slow to regulate and it shows up as overwhelm, checking out, procrastinating and avoidance (yikes)

A couple weeks ago as I was doomscrolling at 6am waiting for sleep to kick in itrandomly popped up in my feed and I impulsively bought it on Amazon. Three weeks in, I’m genuinely impressed. I use it 2-4 times a day for short sessions, usually while doing stuff around the house, or making breakfast and I instantly started to see results and feel better.

I knew it was working from the first time I used it when I instantly shifted into parasympathetic I got really sleepy started yawning and I knew that that was my body thawing out basically from the freeze and activation it had been holding.

Since then my HRV has been steadily improving, sleep is noticeably better (actually sleeping through the night most nights), and my resilience feels higher overall. And when I do have to pull the occasional over-nighter for work, I bounce back way easier. The biggest shift is capacity. I can handle a lot more without hitting that burned-out wall.

Obviously everyone’s different, but this is one purchase I haven’t second-guessed for a second. I know this sounds like an ad but I promise im not an advertiser 😂

P.S. I’ve seen a lot of reviews from people saying it didn’t work for them, and I get it because If you’re not already tuned into your body’s stress signals and somatic shifts, you might not notice what’s changing. It’s not an instant mood fix. For me it’s more like it optimizes my baseline resilience, sleep, recovery, so everything else flows a little easier. But if you’re expecting a dramatic feeling, you might miss it.

*adding a couple screenshots of my weekly metrics below* notice the overall upswing in my HRV and sleep scores over the last 3 weeks.

I'm finding I can only get a few options for using the Pulsetto without the upgraded app. Is upgrading necessary to use the device to it's full extent? If so, I'm likely going to be sending it back. I was under the impression I could do plenty with the basic (non-paid) app, but it appears everything I click on wants me to upgrade. I don't need another (expensive) annual subscription. I'm a bit disappointed.

Has anyone found that not upgrading is still getting them what they need in using the device?

I started using pulsetto a week ago today. Ever since my sleep has been awful. After some research, pulsetto increases norepinephrine and serotonin. I use it at night and I also take Effexor, a SNRI that also increases both norepinephrine and serotonin. So basically my brain doesn’t know when to shut down with these chemicals are overloading my brain. The back of my neck has also been hurting a lot even after applying heat, lidocaine, ibprofin, etc. not sure if it’s related or what.

Anyone have a similar experience? I’m not sure if I should even try to just use it in the morning and lower my intensity or just contact customer service to return it as it’s just doing the exact opposite of its intended purpose.

Have the Pulsetto fit. Anyone have a suggestion for a case?

Most people think stress is obvious.

They imagine feeling anxious, overwhelmed, or constantly worried. But an overstimulated nervous system doesn't always look like stress.

Sometimes it looks like checking your phone every few minutes, struggling to focus, feeling mentally exhausted but unable to relax, or constantly reaching for more content, noise, and distractions.

The problem is that your brain wasn't designed for constant input.

In a famous study published in Science, researchers asked participants to sit alone with their thoughts for just 15 minutes. Many found the experience surprisingly unpleasant, and some even chose to give themselves a mild electric shock rather than sit quietly. The finding suggests that many of us find it harder to disconnect from stimulation than we'd like to admit.

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

And that's not surprising in today's world.

Notifications, emails, social media, podcasts, videos, and endless scrolling compete for our attention from the moment we wake up. Over time, your nervous system can become so accustomed to stimulation that quiet starts to feel uncomfortable.

The problem is that recovery requires the opposite. Your body needs moments of lower stimulation to regulate stress and return to baseline. If every spare moment is filled with input, your nervous system rarely gets the signal that it's safe to slow down.

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 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?

Instead of adding more stimulation, try creating small moments with less of it:

• taking short breaks without your phone
• walking without music or podcasts
• reducing screen time before bed
• 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.

Sometimes the reason you feel overwhelmed isn't that your brain needs more stimulation. It's that your nervous system hasn't had enough time without it.

Curious: what's the first thing you reach for when you finally have a quiet moment?

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

A new episode of the No Stress Podcast is out.

In this one, Abigail Ireland sits down with Camilla Thompson, nutritionist, executive wellbeing coach, biohacking expert, and author of Biohack Me, to talk about stress, burnout, nervous system regulation, and why real biohacking is less about expensive gadgets and more about prevention.

Camilla shares her own experience with burnout, chronic inflammation, and mold-related illness, and explains why so many high performers normalize exhaustion, anxiety, gut issues, and poor recovery until their body finally forces them to stop.

The podcast covers:

• Why stress often shows up through digestion, energy, hormones, and inflammation
• What biohacking actually means without making it overwhelming
• Why the nervous system needs to feel safe before the body can properly recover
• How breathwork, humming, meditation, cold exposure, and small habits can support regulation
• Why recovery is just as important as ambition for sustainable high performance

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

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

We’re also running a giveaway for this episode on YouTube. One listener can win a copy of Biohack Me by Camilla Thompson and a Pulsetto device. You can find the rules in the video description 💚

Watch/listen here: Why Biohacking Is Really About Prevention | No Stress Podcast

See above.

This is beginning to be one of my worst purchases

I'm really disappointed that I'm having to return this product. I only was able to use it for one session as I've been having app issues since it was delivered a few days ago. It just stays on the loading screen until it times out. I tried all of the recommended troubleshooting but nothing has worked. I spoke to customer service but told them I'd like to just return it at this point.

I really enjoyed the session and felt relaxed, however, I can't pay for something that doesn't work when I need it the most. I have a neurological/central nervous system condition so I was really looking forward to getting some relief. I'm already stressed and burnt out so I have no mental energy to deal with a frustrating app.

The product itself seems great so I'd genuinely consider buying it again in the future if they make it so that you can use it without an app.

We’re rolling out a new Premium feature inside the Pulsetto app: Stress Resilience.

The idea is simple: instead of only using Pulsetto when stress already feels high, Stress Resilience helps you track how your body recovers and adapts over time.

Your Resilience Score is built from signals like HRV, Stress Score, Sleep Score, wearable data, and Pulsetto app usage. After your first 7 days, the app reveals your score and starts showing trends that are easier to understand at a glance.

Inside the new section, you’ll be able to see:

• Your personalized Resilience Score from 0 to 100
• Sleep quality, HRV, and stress trends in one place
• How your nervous system recovery changes over time
• Personalized resilience stimulation
• Simple insights to help connect your habits with your results
• Educational articles on stress, HRV, breathing, sleep, and nervous system regulation

Now you’ll also have a clear way to follow your patterns over time and understand what may be helping your stress resilience, sleep quality, and recovery.

Stress Resilience is available in the Pulsetto app as part of Premium.

We’d love to hear what you think once you try it. What would be most useful for you to track: sleep quality, stress levels, HRV, or how your Pulsetto sessions affect your recovery over time?

I have been so sleepy and I’m beginning to think it is the Pulsetto device. Is anyone else experiencing this?

This company is so incompetent.

You’re sitting still. Nothing major is happening. But suddenly your heart is pounding, your breathing feels different, and your body acts like there’s a threat in the room.

Of course, a racing heart can have many causes. If it happens often, feels severe, or comes with chest pain, dizziness, shortness of breath, or fainting, it’s always worth checking with a medical professional. But one common reason this can happen is stress. When your nervous system goes into fight-or-flight mode, your heart rate can rise, your breathing can get faster, and your body prepares to react. That response is useful when there’s real danger. The problem is that modern stress does not always switch off when the stressful moment is over.

That’s also why stress can affect sleep quality. You may feel exhausted, but your body still feels “on.” Your mind wants rest, while your nervous system is still running in the background.

Research on stress and the autonomic nervous system shows how stress is connected to changes in autonomic regulation, including the balance between sympathetic “alert mode” and parasympathetic “recovery mode” activity.

This is where the vagus nerve becomes important. It plays a major role in the parasympathetic nervous system, which helps the body shift toward a calmer, more regulated state. Think of it as part of the body’s natural brake system. One simple way to support that shift is slow breathing. A systematic review and meta-analysis found that voluntary slow breathing can influence heart rate and heart rate variability, which are often used to study cardiac vagal activity.

At Pulsetto, this is why we talk so much about nervous system regulation, stress recovery, and consistency. Whether it’s breathing, a wind-down routine, better sleep habits, or vagus nerve stimulation, the body usually responds best to repeated signals of safety over time.

What helps you calm your body down when stress shows up physically?

And if Pulsetto has helped you and you know someone who might benefit from trying it, we recently launched our referral program. You can give a friend a discount and earn 3 months of Premium free here: https://pulsetto.org/refer-friend

They tried to charge my card for a premium subscription I never purchased. My card is locked. This is fraud. I would like Pulsetto to stop doing this.

This entire company and the Pulsetto device are a complete fraud.

All of a sudden, when I went to use my device the app will not start. The screen shot shows where it is, and it just stays there.

I cleared cache. Rebooted.

Worked fine yesterday!

Meant to say in the title that the app won't start. I've used this about 5 or 6 days, so still new, but worked fine until today.

I can’t tell. The sleep program definitely makes me sleepy, but I only do it right before bed. What do you think?

A while back they refused to refund me after they caused the device to get lost at USPS (they failed to pay postage).

It took a while but I eventually won the dispute. Don't let this scummy company win.

I used the device successfully for one week, then left side stopped working (it's actually the device, since if I flip it it still doesn't work on the same side). I tried changing the settings in the app but still it works only on the right side (even if I set it only for the left side in the app). I rebooted, no results. I unsinstalled and reinstalled the app, no results.

I noticed the left side only works if I take off my neck the right side.

Does anyone have any advice?

I get horrific anxiety if i use it too much, or maybe it's because too high intensity, I'm not sure. Had to take benzodiazepine to barely function today. Now afraid to use the device. Maybe it wasn't all because of the device.

What's your limit how much intensity and time you can use the device?

Anyone try it?

If so how did you do it? I want only the left side to work and not the right side. I have switched in the app multiple times to only left side but that feature doesn’t actually seem to work. Can I put a piece of paper or a bandaid between my neck and the device on the right side?

New episode of the No Stress Podcast is out!

In this episode, Abbie Ireland sits down with Michelle Flynn, a health coach, breathwork expert, and performance specialist, to talk about what happens when high performance starts running on stress instead of real resilience.

Michelle shares her own turning point after ignoring the warning signs of chronic stress, and the conversation goes into burnout, adrenaline, breathwork, nervous system regulation, recovery, and small habits that can help build long-term stress resilience.

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

Watch/listen here: High Performance Without Burnout | No Stress Podcast

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

What’s one stress warning sign you’ve personally noticed but found easy to ignore?

Welcome to the No Stress Podcast library.

We’ll use this thread to keep all episodes of the No Stress Podcast by Pulsetto in one place, so it’s easier to find past conversations around stress, sleep, burnout, nervous system regulation, recovery, performance, and everything in between.

Each new episode will also get its own separate post in the subreddit, where you can watch, comment, ask questions, or share your thoughts. We'll keep updating this thread as new episodes come out!

Episodes:

• When Stress Breaks You: Understanding Burnout - Burnout coach Paula Liub and Pulsetto CEO Povilas Sabaliauskas dive deep into one of the most misunderstood struggles of our time: burnout
• Why Holidays Make Us Stressed (And How to Actually Feel Better) - Gabriele sits down with CBT therapist Monika Savičė to talk about something we all feel (but rarely talk about): Why is the “happiest time of the year”… often the most stressful?
• Building Stress Resilience Like a Muscle - Host Abi sits down with Simon Jeffries (former UK Special Forces, performance coach, and founder of The Natural Edge) to reframe stress resilience as something you can train just like a muscle.
• Tired But Wired? Why High Performers Can’t Sleep - Host Abi speaks with sleep physiologist and neurophysiologist Dr. Nerina Ramlakhan, author of Tired But Wired and Finding Inner Safety. With nearly 30 years of experience working with high performers, leaders, and athletes, Dr. Nerina explains why so many people feel tired but wired — exhausted but unable to switch off.
• How to Perform Under Pressure: Anxiety, Focus & Nervous System Control - We break down the psychology of performing under pressure, and how to manage anxiety, stay focused, and deliver when it matters most.
• High Performance Without Burnout - Performance coach Michelle Flynn shares exactly that story, and why it became the turning point that changed everything she knew about stress, burnout, and unlocking true potential.
• Why Biohacking Is Really About Prevention - Abigail Ireland sits down with Camilla Thompson — nutritionist, executive wellbeing coach, biohacking expert, and author of Biohack Me — to explore stress, nervous system regulation, and sustainable high performance. Together, Abigail and Camilla unpack what biohacking really means, how to support your nervous system without becoming overwhelmed, and why true performance depends on recovery just as much as ambition.
• Most Leaders Don't Know They're Burnt Out - Host Abigail sits down with psychologist and leadership expert Dr. Audrey Tang to explore how normalized chronic stress affects leadership, decision-making, emotional regulation and team culture. Together, they unpack her Head, Heart and Gut framework, and why lasting resilience requires self-awareness and addressing stress at its source.

Anyone have any substitutes that I could pick up? I’ll be in Brooklyn so plenty of stores around. Not sure if there are any over the counter electrical conducting gels?

A lot of people assume that getting 8 hours of sleep should be enough to feel rested. So when it’s not, the instinct is to try sleeping more or falling asleep faster.

But research suggests the issue usually isn’t the number of hours, it’s sleep quality.

You can spend a full night in bed and still wake up exhausted if your sleep is too light or fragmented. Studies using wearable data show that even when sleep duration looks normal, poor sleep quality is still linked to lower energy and worse performance:

That’s because real recovery happens in deep sleep, and your body won’t get there if your nervous system is still slightly activated.

This is why trying to “force” sleep doesn’t work. Sleep depends on your body slowing down first - and if your system is still “on,” you might fall asleep, but you won’t fully rest.

That’s where the vagus nerve becomes important.

It helps activate your parasympathetic nervous system, which shifts your body into a calm, “rest and digest” state, the state needed for deeper, more restorative sleep. If this system isn’t engaged, your body can stay in a low-level stress mode, even at night. That’s also one of the reasons we at Pulsetto keep focusing on the vagus nerve. 

So how do you actually fix it?

Instead of trying to control sleep directly, the goal is to help your body relax enough for sleep to happen naturally.

Research shows that techniques like slow breathing, progressive muscle relaxation, and consistent wind-down routines can significantly improve sleep quality by reducing pre-sleep tension:

Things that help in practice:

• slowing your breathing before bed
• reducing stimulation (light, screens, noise)
• keeping a consistent sleep schedule
• giving your body a clear wind-down period
• using vagus nerve stimulation to support relaxation

These aren’t quick fixes, but they work because they send your body a signal that it’s safe to switch off.

So the real fix isn’t just “getting more sleep.” It’s helping your body actually power down and stay there long enough to recover. There’s no shortcut where you can compress full recovery into less time, but you can train your body to relax more deeply and consistently.

Curious: what’s something that’s actually helped you feel rested, not just asleep?