According to Neuroptimal, session 6 is, on average, the point where many people start to receive the most benefit from using their system. My plan was to go ahead and do at least 6 sessions to see if I could hit that mark. You can read about my uneventful sessions 1-3 here.
Overall with these last three sessions, the big thing I noticed is that it did ‘feel’ like it was working more. Not that I necessarily saw some symptomatic changes, but rather that during the sessions I progressively felt like it was doing more. What it was doing, I don’t know. I just felt more tired, like my brain was working more each time.
Session 4
This was pretty much the same as the other sessions. No big changes. My mood may have been lifted about 10% but that’s not huge so it could have been something else. Felt like the ‘skips’ in the music that supposedly train your brain were provoking a bit more of a response in me. I know that’s vague but it felt like when there was a skip it would ‘hit’ me harder than the first few sessions.
Session 5
This was slightly different. As I’ve mentioned, the practitioner tells me that it’s best to fall asleep during the session, but I haven’t been able to do so. This session we decided to have me watch the neuroptimal screen during the session rather than just reclining and closing my eyes. It’s hard to say if this is what made the difference, but it’s possible.
The video looks like that old animation from windows media player that would play when listening to music. It looks super 90’s. So I watched that and it made me more tired. I tried to just zone out and not think about much. I didn’t fall asleep this time either.
So, what happened? Well, subjectively nothing really. I don’t see much difference yet. But apparently the graphs and charts that neuroptimal spits out show that my brain is being more fully utilized. The line graph (I don’t know the actual name of this) was significantly different this time.
I also felt a bit more mentally tired, like my brain was working harder.
Session 6
I was definitely most tired after this one. This indicated to me that it was working more. There was a clear mental fatigue after this one which wasn’t as apparent from past sessions.
This session included keeping my eyes open and watching the animations again. The graphs, again said that it was a productive session more so than past sessions with my eyes closed.
For now I plan to take a break from this to see if I notice any more effects. I might try again in the future.
Click here to see my full review of Neuroptimal.