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Autogenics is a biofeedback technique that induces a state of intense relaxation. It's supposed to be able to help change compulsive behaviors, though I haven't tried that myself. I have found it very helpful for getting to sleep, though, and pleasant as well. I used this guide for what I have done so far.
Fun anecdote: Once, while I was cuddling with my boyfriend, he said, "I can hear your heartbeat!" A few moments later he jerked and looked at me in shock. "It just slowed down!" :-) I felt like a wizard. Biofeedback is cool.
It's probably worth trying if you have problems sleeping. Interestingly, it's found to be useful in treating a several mild mental and physical problems, like headaches, anxiety, mild depression, and sleep disorders. It's also used for pain relief for natural childbirth. (Meaning, for women who don't want to have an epidural.)
I just got this galvanic skin response biofeedback device in the mail a few days ago. Rest your fingers on it and there's a tone goes up as you get more stressed out and down as you get more relaxed. I haven't been experimenting with it very long, but using the device and trying to make the tone go down does seem to be quite an effective way to relax. Housemates have found the tone annoying, but wearing ear-encompassing headphones on top of the supplied earbuds seems to deal with that.
How long do you think it will take for you to know whether it's effective long term? Could you post an update then?
I'll try to. I doubt it will stop acting as an effective way to relax at some point, if that's what you're wondering. I think it's more likely that I'll forget to use it.
I actually did have a little bit of trouble early on 'cause it's really easy to bring yourself out of a relaxed state, which causes the tone to increase in pitch, and high-pitched tones aren't very relaxing (for me at least). So there's a bit of a downward spiral there, and it can get kinda frustrating if you get set back repeatedly this way. But this wasn't an issue on my most recent usage attempt.
Oh, and another thought: Have you considered trying to use this to learn to go in the opposite direction, i.e., increase your excitement? It might be useful to be able to do both!
OK, I tried this a couple times today, with disappointing results. I was trying to use it to help me focus on a video lecture I was watching, but I found it pretty hard to maintain any sustained increase in my level of activation... even when I got it to spike temporarily, it would immediately start going down. Also, the fact that it read data from my fingers meant I couldn't use that hand to create spaced repetition cards. Overall, it served as way more of a distraction than an asset, and I don't think I noticed any focus benefits immediately afterwards when I stopped using it and restarted the video I was watching from the beginning.
It's conceivable that you could make this work through a gradual increase rather than sudden spiking, or configure the dial so that it would only start to make noise once your level of activation went below some threshold. I might experiment with those ideas in the future.
If you want increased alertness, there are other hacks in the thread for that, like D_Malik's ideas of blue-tinted glasses or spraying/splashing water on your face (and of course there's always caffeine etc.) Supposedly yawning also improves alertness.
Hmm, okay. I was considering trying it on its own, rather than while doing something else. I know I wasn't able to do autogenics exercises while trying to do something else before, and now I sort of can after having practiced, so I would expect it to go poorly to try to go the other direction for the first time while otherwise occupied.
After you mentioned this I realized I have all the parts on hand to make a DIY galvanic skin response sensor. I got the hardware set up, and now I'm working on getting the software set up in a nice way. Hopefully it will work out :-)
Yep, I have considered that. I've been kind of distracted by the possibility of being able to do focused work even while in a relaxed/parasympathetic state, which seems more optimal but also harder (maybe impossible).
Hmm, I don't think doing work would work for me in that state. I've sometimes tried doing autogenics exercises and then "waking up" out of it right before doing work, and it seemed to help clear distractions.
Oh, those are super cool. I tried using one at the Toronto Science Museum and started doing my autogenics exercises, and got it to go down to minimum pretty quickly. You might be able to train that even faster having one to play with all the time.
You should have tried sending the morse code SOS message using it!
"Help, I'm trapped in an autonomic nervous system!"
People who get good at this can control the rate but not the individual beats. And definitely can't do the long beats that morse code would require.
The recommended practice time is quite long, is that to be able to do it at will or something? See for example this Youtube video which was effective for me today, and this is the first time I've tried this.
Yeah, I think the goal is to be able to enter an autogenic state in under a minute (if you look at the regular practice routine at the end, it is quite short). I've been basically doing the first few exercises from time to time, off and on for a few years, and I'm able to get pretty relaxed in a few minutes. It's been useful to me even without following the practice schedule strictly.