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Thync, a Wearable That Zaps Your Brain To Calm You Down or Amp You Up

Posted by Soulskill on from the i-saw-that-episode-of-star-trek dept.

blottsie sends this first-hand report on how it felt to use a wearable device called Thync, which sends small amounts of electricity into your brain for the purpose of either calming you down or making you feel energized. While the unit I used isn't the finalized physical version, the best way to describe it is as a two-part device, one of which is fasted to the front of the right side of your temple, and one behind your right ear. It's not a helmet, which is what I absolutely assumed it would be. It's relatively discreet sort of dual patch system ... It didn't... hurt. Hurt isn't the right way to describe it. It felt like a tightness; it felt like the patch was trying to crawl across my skin. But — if you can believe this — in a good way. And while Thync was attached to the right side of my head, occasionally I felt 'tingles' pulling and hitting my brain on the left side and in the middle. I was feeling progressively awake and aware. Granted, I had patches stuck to my head sending gentle vibrations to my brain, so that might have been part of my sudden alertness. But still, after 20 minutes of Thync I just felt... better.

4 of 154 comments (clear)

  1. harrison bergeron by schneidafunk · · Score: 1, Insightful

    I hope they didn't get the idea from Vonnegut; I recall it ending badly for those involved.

    --
    Some people die at 25 and aren't buried until 75. -Benjamin Franklin
  2. Future notes from Molly McHugh's journal by Bovius · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Day 35 of insomnia. I only slept for 40 minutes today, with Thync turned up to maximum calming for 6 hours. I still managed to get a few hours of work in with alert enhancement on. Could barely focus. Need more sleep.

  3. Re:Great, wearable home electroshock therapy! by NoNonAlphaCharsHere · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Before this, we referred to wearable devices that did this as "hip flasks".

  4. Re:Does it work? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I'm pretty sure it works just like trans cranial direct current stimulation (tDCS), which has a lot of science behind it; come to think of it I'd just go with one of those devices. FWIW tDCS did pull me out of a pretty severe drug resistant depression, it's a great technology (and you actually need it less and less as it works, so long term dependency hasn't been an issue).