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Have you ever wondered “how much energy do we need for the tasks we do at work, at home, or to generally enjoy the things that we like?” What about “how much energy does it take to remember something, to have clarity of mind?” We’re going to break down how we get this energy, where it comes from, and how to best take breaks so we’re keeping our energy.
People spend a lot of their free time watching TV, playing video games, or browsing social media. However from a physiological standpoint: do they drain us or rather refill our energy tanks?
To understand this, we’ll need to know how our bodies manage energy spend and recovery spend and recovery. The autonomic nervous system — the system that helps us unconsciously regulate bodily functions — drives this. It tells us when to eat, to sleep, and so on. If we listen to it, we will feel refreshed every day. But if we ignore it for too long, we will start feeling the effects of burnout.
We have two branches of the autonomic nervous system, the sympathetic branch, which is in charge of energy expenditure (related to the fight or flight response, but more generally to activities that require energy, like following a movie plot), and the parasympathetic branch, which is in charge of energy restoration (activities that occur without us consciously engaging such as sleep and digestion).
To operate at optimal performance, our bodies should be given opportunities to switch between both branches of the autonomic nervous system throughout the day as sort of an ebb and flow of activity. Doing work should kick the sympathetic system into action while taking a break should allow the parasympathetic system to restore us. However, there are many leisure activities that are highly stimulating (Fortnight, I am looking at you, and don’t tell me Black Mirror or doom-scrolling is relaxing). These “breaks” can inadvertently keep us “on” (i.e. sympathetic state) when our intentions are to turn “off” and unwind (i.e. parasympathetic state).
So how can we tell if we’re effectively resting or unintentionally stressing our bodies? A methodology called Heart Rate Variability (HRV), or the variance in time between heart beats, can actually help us know if we are in the sympathetic or the parasympathetic branch. One measurement often used is Heart Rate Variability (HRV), and it measures how variable our heartbeats are.
How is HRV related to our autonomic nervous system? When the parasympathetic system is active, our heart rate has greater variability, tending to beat faster when we inhale and slower when we exhale (figure 1.1), thus HRV goes up when we are resting effectively.
Figure 1.1
Conversely, if our heart rate is very regular regardless of whether we are inhaling or exhaling, then that is a sign that we are in energy expenditure mode, which is normal for activities such as work , but if we are in this state during what should be “restful activities”, it might lead to burnout. If we plot HRV (measured as R-R intervals) over time, we can clearly see whether we are spending energy or restoring it:
So, what to do? It’s simple! One way is to use a respiratory band and a heart rate sensor, which would enable you to measure your HRV every time you take a break to see if it is restoring or draining your energy. This post from Harvard Health Blog has a few good options to get more into depth on it.
Neurable has conducted several studies that demonstrate that the MW75 Neuro headphones can measure pulse and therefore HRV, from the sensors around the ear. We are planning to include an HRV metric to our pipeline in the future. Stay tuned!
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