Training My Brain for 7 Days 🧠💪
The human brain is capable of remarkable things. It enables us to appreciate beauty, crack jokes, comprehend the concept of time, and particularly be self-conscious. This separates us from the neighborhood cat, the lizard at the pet shop, or your cousin’s dog. Harnessing our mind is a key to unlocking exponential keys to both human capabilities and technology, like brain-computer interfaces.
In December 2019, I meditated and trained my brain to be more focused and attentive for 7 days using a Muse headband paired with the app. Featured on CNN, Mashable, and even The New York Times, it’s a headband that translates your mental activity into the guiding sounds of weather to help you find focused calm. If your mind is busy and off-task, the weather is stormy. If you’re calm, the weather you hear is peaceful.
The Muse headband is a type of non-invasive brain-computer interface, meaning it can measure the electrical impulses from your brain without having to directly touch your brain. It’s an EEG device, which stands for electroencephalogram, which is simply a device that detects your brain activity. During interneuron communication, your neurons’ synaptic activity generates electric impulses that the EEG measures. It has great temporal resolution, meaning it can give you accurate real-time feedback, but not exactly where the brain activity is occurring.
Every EEG device, such as the Muse headband, has electrodes. Electrodes are electric conductors which, in this case, are placed on your head. Within the Muse headband, there are seven electrodes. Two on the forehead, two behind the ears, and three additional reference sensors.
When I first put the Muse headband on, I chose to stick with a forty-five-minute session consistently. As for the general feel of it, there’s a very subtle sensation on your forehead. It’s not painful in the slightest, and not noticeable either once you clear your mind.
Day 1: Active for 17 minutes, neutral for 18 minutes, and calm for about 8 minutes. On Day 1 I was particularly excited about having electrodes on my mind, so I don’t think I was very calm.
Day 2: Active for 20 minutes, neutral for 13 minutes, and calm for 12 minutes. I used the headband shortly after exercising. On this day I decided to do varying actions beforehand to see if they influenced how calm and focused I could be.
Day 3: Active for 12 minutes, neutral for 18 minutes, and calm for 14 minutes. I remember being particularly tired on Day 3.
Day 4: Active for 5 minutes, neutral for 11 minutes, and calm for approximately 28 minutes. This day I especially focused on being calm, even brewing some peppermint tea beforehand.
Day 5: Active for about 6 minutes, neutral for 14 minutes, calm for about 24 minutes. After Day 4, I really got into the groove of being calm.
Day 6: Active for 24 minutes, neutral for 3 minutes, calm for 16 minutes. I did my session during my school lunch break, and as my friends were curious about what I was doing, it was a lot harder to be calm.
Day 7: Active for roughly 4 minutes, neutral for 13 minutes, and calm for 26 minutes.
After a week of the 45-minute routine, I noticed that when I needed to focus on doing homework or research, I could stop my mind from wandering a lot more than a week prior. I was able to go to sleep quicker and not lose track of my thoughts as often. While I still will randomly think about what I’m having for lunch later and how long my fingernails are getting during a task, I believe the seven-day training genuinely helped in my self-awareness.
I think this experiment was a great way to first introduce myself to brain-computer interfaces, something I definitely want to go deeper into. Not only that, but I enjoyed being calm so often! I’ll definitely be doing this again.
Thanks for reading this! If you want to talk more about it, you can find me on LinkedIn or email me at satuenwezor@gmail.com
