Gamma Brain Biofeedback: How Do I Do on a “Bad Day”?

Published Categorised as Brain Health, Brain Biofeedback

Today was a “bad day” brain biofeedback session. My trainer wanted to see how my brain (and heart) would do on a bad day, that is, a day I don’t come straight from home but after an appointment, walking around, and lots of TTC time. Plus just being out for much of the day.

Well, my heart was as expected. My heart rate was back in familiar (to me) 120+ beats/minute territory. But surprisingly, to me, training for gamma brought my heart rate down to under 120. My HRV was not completely awful.

My muscle tension was as expected: higher than recently and causing problems during one neurofeedback screen. But I figured out the problem: with posture and breathing taken care of, I had to concentrate more on relaxing my jaw. That’s where tension resides for many of us anyway.

Gamma brainwave power got better once I got my tension down. But overall not as good as it has been. Still, my trainer thought I did well given the circumstances. In fact, even though she averred “no expectations” at the start, she ended the session by saying I did better than she thought I would.

As for me, there was only one thing on my mind: I made it! Oh, and the Olympics are on. Finally! I can tune in and tune out.

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The results (because it was a long day for me, my trainer set the screens to three minutes and skipped the last HRV one, thank God):

Date Baseline HRV EC HRV Fdbk 1 Fdbk 2 Fdbk 3 Fdbk 4 Fdbk 5 HRV EC
27 Jun 0.83 0.88 0.90 0.90 0.91
4 Jul 0.85 0.90 0.91 0.94 0.898 0.90 0.84
10 Jul 0.85 0.92 0.89 0.86 0.84 0.86 0.83 0.86 0.90
11 Jul 0.95 0.94 0.86 0.88 0.93 0.95 HRVEC
0.98
0.94
17 Jul 0.91 0.97 1.05 1 0.94 0.96 0.97
18 Jul 0.97 0.99 0.97 1.05 0.93 0.94
25 Jul 0.96 1 1.03 1.02 1.01 0.97 1.02
27 Jul 1.08 0.91 0.96 0.88 0.957 0.962