Insomnia and anxiety are familiar terms for many people. Sufferers commonly resort to pills and behavioral therapy to deal with sleep deprivation and stress.
Recent innovations dedicated to mood relief have been developed to address these concerns.
Healium, a Colombia-based therapeutic technology program designed to combat stress and promote sleep through wellness-focused treatments that use simulated virtual reality via headsets .
The headset projects immersive natural landscapes, each projection lasting 4-7 minutes. The headset can be used in conjunction with the Brainlink Lite EEG Headband or Apple Watch. The headband allows users to see their brainwaves in near real time.
Healium CEO Sarah Hill said: “And it definitely gets your heart rate up and your nervous system amplified, just like watching a horror movie, but that same medium can downshift that as well.”
The headset uses neurofeedback, also known as biofeedback. Neurofeedback is real-time data collected from electroencephalograms, voltages in the brain.
Ultimately, the goal of these devices is to train the wearer to notice disturbing thoughts, manage them better, and fall asleep more easily.
“Helium is not a substitute for psychotropic drugs or professional counseling,” Hill said. Instead, the treatment promotes mindfulness and retraining of thought patterns.
Hill said paying attention to neurofeedback and biofeedback can increase self-awareness. can be shifted.
Before becoming CEO of the business, Hill worked as a journalist. Her sleepless and stressful nights in Sri Lanka inspired her to develop a cure for people like her.
“I was looking for a non-medicated, harmless coping mechanism that would allow me to learn to self-regulate,” she said. “So we found neurofeedback, which has been around for decades, a type of neurofeedback or biofeedback within an immersive video environment.”
Manjamalai Sivaraman specializes in neurology and sleep medicine at the Neurology and Sleep Disorders Clinic of Columbia. Doctors have said that people with chronic insomnia have difficulty falling asleep or staying asleep despite having the right time and place.
“Chronic insomnia means that someone has had insomnia problems at least three nights a week for at least three months,” Sivaraman said. Continued sleep deprivation can interfere with daytime activities, leading to anxiety and poor concentration, he said.
Cognitive-behavioral therapy incorporates techniques used to treat insomnia, such as yoga and meditation. Another way to combat chronic insomnia is visual imagery, says Shivaraman. Patients begin with their eyes closed and imagine an ideal environment to reduce anxiety and promote sleep.
Medical facilities are now using immersive environments in virtual reality to treat severe psychological injuries, Hill said.
“Hospitals around the world are using it with nurses for burnout and compassion fatigue. for our employees,” Hill said.
“This is the stress Olympics and not everyone is training. You know, these are just the drug-free tools you need in your skill set.”
It takes dedication and effort to make drug-free tools effective.
“Taking a pill is probably the easiest thing a patient can do,” Sivaraman said. “Only motivated people can succeed with cognitive-behavioral therapy.”
Jared Torbet, a licensed professional counselor and owner of Columbia’s Anxiety and Depression Clinic, agrees. Intended for adults.
“Any time you’re trying to teach your brain to automate something, or you’re trying to teach yourself to behave better, you have to be very consistent,” said Torbet. I see and hear all the time, and I want to create and help these programs to automate things we do over and over again and simplify our lives. .”
While Healium was tracking his neurofeedback, Torbet had the chance to demonstrate using a VR headset.
“They built these 3D virtual journeys,” says Torbet. “For example, if you’re traveling in this really cool landscape and you’re starting to get anxious, [the headset] Sense it and tell it to breathe to calm it down. “
In his practice, Tovett uses exercises to combat nocturnal rumination, which he calls “thought stopping.” If the patient cannot fall asleep within 5 minutes, instruct them to get out of bed and, if possible, out of the room and engage in activities to forget their worries.
He said clients should slowly get better each day and finally see positive results within a week of practicing the exercises.
The VR headset is also intended to relieve patients of nighttime worries, he said.
Hill, Tovett, and Sivaraman agree that setting aside regular time to retrain the brain is essential to producing results. Hill said he doesn’t have a recommended time requirement for
“You might think of it like a warm bath or a walk in the park,” Hill said. “The effects are not permanent. Like any other type of exercise, you have to work and come back to do it.”
Healium is currently participating in several international trials focused on a variety of research, including reducing anxiety medication use to test post-traumatic stress disorder and mood-enhancing coping strategies.
Beyond Healium, the pharmaceutical company aims to bring drug-free VR tools to people, Hill said.
With a growing number of remedies and treatments related to anxiety and insomnia, those interested in using VR strive to mimic pharmaceutical interventions.
