Now more than ever, being as recovered as possible with ample sleep and rest is essential to your immune system. This past year through the “pandemic” I’ve actually used it as a time to step up the level of self care. I’ve been eating cleaner, taking many different vitamins and supplements, and making sure I get 7+hrs a night of sleep. There have been so many new studies on how sleep effects your whole life, especially your immune system. I’m going to share with you here in this article, what my found favorite mind body restoration hack is.

Through this whole last year, no one in the main stream media has even mentioned maintaining a strong immune system. It’s all fear based messaging. My goal here is to add to the positive messaging, and taking control of our own health as much as we possibly can. There are many things you can do to create a stronger immune system. Most people who have had harsh cases of “covid” have had already compromised immune systems. I’ve heard a handful of stories of people who have

Covid aside, creating a strong immune system is important to overall health and wellness.

In this article, I want to speak more to sleep and recovery alone as my new favorite life hack addresses just that. When your sleep and recovery is low, your immune system is highly compromised. I’ve been working to dial in my own sleeping container while I’m home in NYC. I have my Ooler pad(Learn more here) that cools my bed and I sleep so well. I also have a soft mattress pad that helps as I am a side sleeper. I have black out shades to keep things dark and a Somavedic that helps neutralize EMF waves. Not to mention, it’s just my own bed that I’m used to.

You can call me a sleep Diva. I’ll own that.

When I’m traveling, I don’t have any of those things so I struggle with first nights in new beds, hard beds, erratic room temperatures, bright spaces, so I don’t sleep as well. I end up waking up super early and not being able to sleep, etc.

My new favorite biohacking device is the NuCalm. This tech was originally only really available to rich people, primarily pro athletes who use it for recovery as it used to cost upwards of $5K to get into. This past year, they completely revamped their business model to a subscription based model in the range of $40-80/month to help more people be able to access it.

I’ve been using it for the last couple months and it’s been a game changer. This tech essentially drops your brain frequency down and suspends you in Theta state where your body is actively recovering, restoring, and rebuilding. It’s similar to getting deep sleep, but exponential results. Sleep is the most important thing especially for athletes in recovery for their body, and NuCalm has helped give them even more of that. NuCalm isn’t a replacement for sleep, but it helps balance your body’s recovery out tremendously.

I was just on the road for 3 weeks, and typically I’m spent after a week of not sleeping in my own bed. In testing this out. Typically on a normal day at home, I’ll NuCalm in the afternoon when I hit a dip in energy, but during my travels I started using it if I wake up early, my mind starts racing and I can’t fall back asleep. I’ll put it on the longer setting and drop into Theta for a good hour -hour and a half. It highly affected my overall energy and well being through the whole trip. My body felt so much more recovered especially moving into the third week.

There are three components to the NuCalm: The BioSignal disc that is embedded with 6 layers of frequency that you stick to the acupuncture point on your left wrist. It helps your body drop into rest. The eye mask to shut out external stimulus, and the NuCalm app which plays specific neuroacoustic tracks that are intentionally designed to drop your body into Theta state. If you’ve heard of binaural beats, it’s an exponential more complex version of that that even the top scientists can’t reverse engineer. The typical use is in the afternoon for 20-30 minutes.

NuCalm has been a huge game changer for me. Staying rested and recovered is my top priority for my immune system and overall well being. I function at my optimal self when I’m fully rested and I’ve been working to maintain that for the last few years.

I interviewed Jim Poole on the neuroscience of NuCalm which will be coming out in the coming months so keep following to check that out.

For now, if you’d like to try it out you can click this link for 50% off your first month or use the NuCalm coupon code “NickOnken50” at checkout on the NuCalm site.

One thing that has helped me monitor my rest and recovery is the Whoop strap. It’s fairly accurate and helpful to see how your exercise strain effects your day along with your sleep recovery. It can help you identify days of poor sleep when NuCalm would be helpful. Get a free month of Whoop Strap at this link.