“Deep rest without sleep” as the best remedy for stress

When millions speak, they listen, for example in Silicon Valley. Andrew D. Huberman (46 years old) was born there, more specifically in Palo Alto, just as this place began to develop into one of the centers of the computer age in the mid-seventies.

Google is headquartered in nearby Mountain View. Its CEO Sundar Pichai, 50, recently admitted in an interview that he often practiced “Non-Sleep Deep Rest,” NSDR for a brief period, during the lockdown. The inventor of this relaxation technique is neuroscientist Andrew D. Hubermann.

And countless people listen to him when he releases a new episode of “Huberman Lab Podcast.” Since the beginning of 2021, he’s been talking to other experts there about his specialty, neuroscience. Or in short: about the human brain. The result is the most popular health podcast in the United States.

And now you can listen to it in the new Virtusan app. Huberman is a well-known scientist who supports the holistic health application approach. In the demonstration video, Huberman praised the NSDR as an aid in many situations. “You wake up in the middle of the night and can’t go back to sleep? NSDR helps.” Similarly, when you wake up in the morning, you get enough sleep, but you still feel weak. or at work.

As long as you have time

“A lot of people ask how long you have to do an NSDR in order to be successful,” Huberman said. His answer: As long as you have time. Ten minutes, twenty minutes, thirty minutes, everything is useful. “In the Virtusan app we have texts that are ten, twenty or thirty minutes long.” Texts are audio tracks made up of text and music intended for relaxation.

By the way, Huberman has been practicing meditation for over ten years using the formula he developed. He coined the acronym NSDR in order to be able to reach people who have little idea of ​​the word “meditation”. Because that’s actually the essence of NSDR: a form of meditation.

Virtusan – Now in your App Store

Virtusan is a scientific platform that helps users increase their flexibility and health in the work environment and in general. With the help of digital tools based on artificial intelligence, which are constantly adapting to the needs of the individual.

Among the scholars who support Virtuosan Andrew D. Huberman (46), an American neuroscientist and professor of neurobiology at Stanford University School of Medicine. Huberman has made various contributions to brain development, flexibility, and neuronal regeneration and repair. He is credited with developing the term “deep rest without sleep”; Technology that accelerates neuroplasticity and combats fatigue.

Download from the App Store for Apple

Download from Google Play Store for Android

Virtusan is a scientific platform that helps users increase their flexibility and health in the work environment and in general. With the help of digital tools based on artificial intelligence, which are constantly adapting to the needs of the individual.

Among the scholars who support Virtuosan Andrew D. Huberman (46), an American neuroscientist and professor of neurobiology at Stanford University School of Medicine. Huberman has made various contributions to brain development, flexibility, and neuronal regeneration and repair. He is credited with developing the term “deep rest without sleep”; Technology that accelerates neuroplasticity and combats fatigue.

Download from the App Store for Apple

Download from Google Play Store for Android

Why does NSDR work? One of Huberman’s areas of expertise is the so-called insularity of the brain. Roughly speaking, it concerns its ability to independently restructure and improve entire brain regions. It’s almost like a computer’s hard drive cleaning itself up due to a program. Continuing this analogy, the NSDR supports this program in humans. NSDR is also a treatment for physical and mental exhaustion. Simply put, it’s deep rest without sleep. “It’s very simple,” Huberman says. “You passively listen to a text that leads you into deep relaxation. Every now and then you get help with focus or visualizations. » In short: you turn it off completely.

And who wouldn’t want to shut down completely? Especially on a busy day at work, knowing that it will benefit you.

Quarter of the week at work

It’s ingrained in the minds of many: It can be stressful at work on a regular basis, after all, that’s what you pay for. Is it really like that? Simple math: there are 168 hours in a week. Most full-time Swiss employees spend 40 or more hours at work. That’s about a full quarter of a week. It will be important to spend this quarter of the week as happily as possible.

In any case, statistics show that there are 11 countries around the world in which job satisfaction is higher than in Switzerland. Switzerland ranks 12th. In the “Global Workforce Happiness Index” issued by the management consultancy Universum, Scandinavia ranks first, followed by Denmark and Costa Rica. The neighboring countries with which we prefer to compare ourselves are ahead of Switzerland: Austria by far and Germany in one place. In short: twelfth place is fine. No more, no less.

‘We are people who work a lot’

This “workforce happiness”, workforce happiness, is determined by several factors: understanding of bosses and employees, and of course salary, large office space, number of overtime hours – especially notorious stress. The current Job Stress Index from Health Promotion Switzerland shows: For the first time, the proportion of employees feeling emotionally exhausted is above 30% (30.3%). In short: work seems to be draining us more and more. Stress seems to be an almost integral part of today’s world of work. “We are people who work out a lot, and burnout or other mental illnesses are on the rise,” Daniel Schmutz, interim CEO of health startup Virtusan said in a recent interview.

This week should be everything else. Ideally. Because we are in the middle of the international “Happiness at Work” week. Many international organizations use campaigns these days to draw attention to the importance of health and satisfaction in the workplace. This is where the Virtusan app comes into play, where world-renowned scholars such as Andrew Huberman give short instructions (so-called “journeys”), which can be an island in the stressful everyday lives of users. There are often three-minute videos and instructions that can be done anywhere. Also at work. NSDR Huberman is just one example.

Is NSDR the formula that makes us all happy workers? It definitely takes more than that. But just having one way to stop in the office for ten minutes is a start.