What Is HRV Biofeedback?

Heart rate variability (HRV) biofeedback is a therapeutic strategy that aims to regulate your nervous system, hormones, and other parts of your health. 

Our multidisciplinary team at Delaware NeuroRehab in Dover, Newark, and Lewes, Delaware, offers HRV biofeedback as a form of neurorehabilitation. They coach you through the process so you can train your body to adapt to stress. 

While people once thought the heart rate was steady and constant, they now know it changes subtly with almost every beat. HRV biofeedback puts you in sync with these changes to help you focus, recover, reduce pain, and boost your overall wellness. 

In this article, we’ll cover the basics of HRV biofeedback and how it might improve your mental and physical health. 

Benefits of HRV biofeedback

HRV biofeedback offers many promising benefits to help you cope with stress. 

The idea is to teach you to regulate your body when you feel stressed so you can more confidently handle challenges like sports competitions, work projects, school exams, or social interactions. 

Here are some of the potential benefits HRV biofeedback offers:

• Better emotional control
• Better stress management
• Improved sleep
• Improved learning abilities
• Lower blood pressure
• A stronger immune system
• More mental clarity
• Fewer stress hormones
• Enhanced sports performance

Often, when you feel angry, irritable, or anxious, it’s because of an overactive nervous system. HRV biofeedback trains you to calm down your nervous system so you can think more clearly. You might even feel a physical difference after HRV biofeedback, like less tension or pain.

What HRV biofeedback can treat

HRV biofeedback can help improve certain health conditions. HRV biofeedback may work as a therapy for: 

• Chronic pain
• Traumatic brain injuries (TBIs)
• Anxiety
• Attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)
• High blood pressure
• Temporomandibular joint disorder (TMJ)
• Headache and migraine
• Substance use disorders
• Insomnia
• Fibromyalgia

Our team can tell you if HRV biofeedback fits into your personalized treatment plan. 

How HRV biofeedback treats concussions and TBIs

HRV biofeedback may help your brain and nervous system heal after a concussion or TBI. More specifically, HRV biofeedback works within your autonomic nervous system. This is the part of your nervous system that controls your heart rate, blood pressure, breathing, digestion and many other bodily functions that happen automatically. 

HRV biofeedback stimulates your vagus nerve to regulate your autonomic nervous system. This is a nerve that controls signals between your brain, heart, digestive system and multiple other organs in the body. 

Stimulating the vagus nerve can improve overall brain function in several ways. It improves memory and emotional regulation. By doing so, it can help reduce some of the lasting effects of a concussion or mild TBI.

What to expect during HRV biofeedback

HRV biofeedback is based on the idea of strengthening the mind-body relationship. There are similarities with other practices like yoga and meditation. Specifically, HRV biofeedback employs deep, regulated breathing. 

While there are several HRV biofeedback methods, you can expect some consistency. During the training, you look at a screen while a sensor on your ear or chest or finger monitors your heart rate. Our team instructs you on how to adjust your breathing based on what you see on the screen. 

Our team also tells you to channel specific, positive emotions while you synchronize your nervous system, heart and lungs by breathing at a certain pace. Doing this triggers a chain of events in your body, leading to a reduced stress response. 

Learn more about HRV biofeedback

Our team is ready to answer your questions about HRV biofeedback. Call the nearest Delaware NeuroRehab office or request an appointment online to learn more.