Stress
Can Brain and Nerve Stimulation Ease Stress and Improve Sleep?
Open access · cc by · source: Europe PMC
Both non-invasive brain stimulation and ear-based nerve stimulation can significantly reduce chronic stress and improve sleep quality over time.
Key findings
Both active treatments successfully reduced stress and enhanced sleep quality compared to their sham counterparts, with effects persisting at the 4 weeks follow-up. While transcranial stimulation showed larger immediate improvements with an effect size of 0.80 for sleep quality, the vagus nerve stimulation group demonstrated a more gradual and sustained reduction in stress over time. Only one participant dropped out of the study due to experiencing adverse side effects.
Methodology
Researchers conducted a randomized, double-blind trial with adults experiencing chronic stress. Participants were assigned to receive five sessions of active or sham electrical stimulation, using either transcranial direct current stimulation on the prefrontal cortex or transcutaneous auricular vagus nerve stimulation on the left ear. The team measured stress levels, perceived stress, and sleep quality before the sessions, immediately after, and 4 weeks post-treatment.
Limitations
The study relied heavily on subjective, self-reported questionnaires rather than objective physiological measures like cortisol levels or motion-tracking sleep actigraphy. It also featured a small final sample size due to a high rate of participants lost to follow-up, and the trial only tracked outcomes for up to 4 weeks. Additionally, there are conflicting participant counts reported in the text regarding the allocation of the sample among the experimental conditions.
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