I do CrossFit after 13-hour ICU shifts.
I’ve done CPR until I felt my ribs go.
I thought I knew how to handle hard things.
I had no idea my nervous system had been running on empty for years.
What I found changed how I recover, how I sleep, and how I show up, at work and in the gym.
— Olivia Tompkins, ICU Nurse, Cardiothoracic Care, London
The Signs I Couldn’t Ignore – For Years, I Told Myself I Was Fine
It started subtly.
Waking up already tense before my alarm, shoulders up on the drive in, mind running through scenarios before I’d walked through the doors.
“I get pre-shift anxious thoughts, not because you’re dreading it, but because you have such a big responsibility as soon as you walk into that hospital.”
Coming home after 13 hours in the ICU, my nervous system was still switched on. Still braced. Ready for the next alarm that wasn’t coming.
CrossFit helped, it genuinely did.
But even after training, there was something underneath I couldn’t reach.
Racing thoughts at night, waking up in the middle of the night.
A body that felt permanently coiled.
I told myself it was just the job, the price you paid.
I didn’t realise these were signs my nervous system was genuinely struggling, until one night I couldn’t ignore it anymore.
The Night I Finally Had to Get Honest With Myself
I’d just come off one of those shifts you don’t easily shake.
We’d lost someone during the shift.
Not unexpected… but it never gets easier. I’d done everything right and, sometimes that’s not enough, and you have to make peace with that.
I came home, changed, and went out to the garden to train.
Because that’s what I do, that’s how I cope.
But that night, halfway through the session, I stopped. I was exhausted in a way that had nothing to do with the workout. Not muscle fatigue. Something deeper. The kind of tiredness that sleep doesn’t fix.
I sat on my barbell in the dark and thought: I tell my clients that the body keeps score.
I’ve seen it.
I’ve watched people arrive in the ICU carrying decades of unprocessed stress in their cardiovascular system, their gut, and their immune function.
And here I was fit, strong, disciplined, and my own body was telling me something I’d been too stubborn to hear.
That night, I couldn’t sleep until past 2 am.
Not unusual. But for the first time, I admitted it wasn’t normal either.
I knew I needed real answers. Not another wellness app. I decided to go straight to scientific research.
I Always Suspected Standard Stress Advice Was Missing Something… So I Read the Studies to Find Out
I turned to scientific literature.
And what I found confirmed what I’d suspected:
Most popular stress-relief approaches never address the actual root of the problem.
Research now shows that according to the WHO, 458 million people worldwide live with persistent anxious thoughts, and fewer than 1 in 4 ever receive effective support, often because the root cause is never properly identified.
The research kept pointing to the same thing: the autonomic nervous system and specifically, the vagus nerve.
And here’s why it’s important:
The vagus nerve is the longest nerve in the body. It runs from the brainstem down through the neck, heart, lungs, and gut. It is the primary nerve of the parasympathetic system, which is the system that tells your body it is safe to recover, rest, and restore.
When it is functioning well, your body shifts from stress to calm efficiently.
When it is not?
You stay stuck in fight-or-flight mode, in a low vagal tone.
But then I found something even more important: vagal tone is directly measurable through heart rate variability (HRV).
As a nurse, I knew HRV as a cardiac marker. What I hadn’t realised was that it is also the most accurate reflection of nervous system health we have.
And mine (when I checked) was consistently, measurably low.
That was the moment I stopped dismissing what I was experiencing. And started looking for something that could actually address it at the source.
The “Solutions” That Made Everything Worse
After reading the research, I decided to test every option I could find. If something could actually solve this, I wanted to know.
Instead, each attempt fell short.
First came the breathing apps.
They helped in the moment, during the session itself.
But the effect lasted maybe 20 minutes. As soon as a stressful thought returned, I was back where I started. They were treating the symptom, not the system.
Then came the supplements:
– Magnesium
– Ashwagandha
– L-theanine.
I tried them all properly, for extended periods.
Some took the edge off but none of them changed my baseline HRV.
None of them addressed the underlying mechanism.
Then I tried adding more structured recovery to my training.
Cold exposure, HRV-guided training loads, and earlier sleep times.
All evidence-based and all genuinely useful. But I was still waking up in the middle of the night and arriving at work already activated.
The floor hadn’t moved, only the ceiling.
Finally, meditation.
I tried.
Genuinely. But sitting still when your nervous system is running hot is like being asked to stand calmly in a river while the current is pulling at you.
My mind wouldn’t settle.
I came out of sessions more frustrated than when I went in.
A Medical Research Event Proved I’d Been Looking in the Wrong Place – The Answer Was Simpler Than I Expected
A few months into my research, I attended a continuing medical education event in London focused on autonomic nervous system health and recovery.
One session covered transcutaneous vagus nerve stimulation, non-invasive VNS delivered through the ear.
I’d seen VNS in the literature before.
But I’d always associated it with surgical implants for epilepsy. What I hadn’t realised was that a new generation of wearable devices was delivering the same therapeutic effect: with no surgery, no clinic, no prescription.
That’s where I first learned about Nurosym.
It wasn’t marketed as a miracle.
It wasn’t a wellness gadget with vague promises.
Just a scientifically validated device finally built around what the nervous system actually needs and that was what caught my attention.
My 30-Day Journey With Nurosym
After Day 1
I wore it for 45 minutes in the morning while reviewing notes before my shift. A gentle tingling in the ear.
Nothing dramatic.
I wasn’t expecting a miracle on day one.
The research is clear that this works through gradual adaptation, not immediate suppression.
What I noticed was subtle: a slightly quieter baseline going into the shift. Less pre-loading of the stress response before I’d even arrived.
After 1 Week
The post-shift activation – that hum of still being switched-on when I got home – was measurably lower. I slept through the night twice that week. My HRV score began climbing.
A colleague in the ICU asked if I’d changed something: she said I seemed “less braced.”
After 2 Weeks
The pre-shift anxious thoughts were still present but they peaked lower and settled faster. I found myself in the changing room before a particularly heavy shift and noticed my shoulders weren’t already up around my ears.
My CrossFit recovery improved noticeably; my coach commented on it without me saying anything. I hadn’t changed my training programme.
After 30 Days
My HRV had gone from a consistent low of 34 to an average of 52.
I was falling asleep within 20 minutes instead of lying awake for an hour.
The racing thoughts at night had reduced significantly. And the thing I felt most clearly, as someone who lives in their body was that my floor had changed. Not my ceiling but my baseline.
Why Nurosym Actually Works & The Science Behind This Device
Below, you’ll see exactly what makes Nurosym different from every other approach I tried.
And why it finally addressed what nothing else could.
What about daily use?
Unlike meditation or breathwork, Nurosym requires nothing from you cognitively.
There’s nothing to figure out, clip it on and carry on with your day. You wear it for 30–60 minutes while doing whatever you’re already doing and your nervous system does the work.
You just have to show up consistently.
I Started Recommending Nurosym to My Colleagues Here’s What Surprised Them Most
It gave them back a version of themselves they thought they’d lost.
Not a dramatic transformation.
Something quieter and more significant, a nervous system that finally had the capacity to actually recover between the hard things.
Finally, a Way to Actually Address the Root of Anxious Thoughts – Not Just Cope With Them
I’ve seen what chronic nervous system dysregulation does to the human body.
I see it every single day at work.
And I’ve felt it myself.
If you’ve been doing everything right and still can’t switch off this is not a willpower problem. It is a nervous system that has lost its ability to regulate itself. And there is now a scientifically validated, non-invasive way to address that directly. From home and in 30 minutes a day.
You don’t have to wait until you’re in a hospital bed to take your nervous system seriously.
It’s only available through the official Nurosym website. A €35 research subsidy is currently available for qualifying users making access significantly more affordable for those ready to try it.
Just be aware – places are tied to the current research programme.
“I absolutely love it. I use it every day. It helps me sleep better and feel better. I would recommend it to everyone.”
Tijana
“I would actually recommend this device to my clients. It’s a really interesting device with a lot of research behind it.”
Ton
“Five stars from me. In this world where we don’t have much to rely on, this is one of the things we can count on.”
Derek
“Many thanks to Nurosym. I’m so happy to have discovered them, and I plan to keep using the device for the foreseeable future.”
Daniel
This article reflects the personal experience and professional perspective of Olivia Tompkins, a registered ICU nurse. Nurosym is a certified medical device. It is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. “Anxious thoughts” as used here refers to subjective experiences of worry and nervous system activation — not a clinical diagnosis. Always consult your healthcare provider before beginning any new health intervention. ¹ WHO Anxiety Disorders Fact Sheet, 2021.
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