An Introduction to Using Biofeedback to Decrease Stress

You no longer need a lab and electrodes to do biofeedback: modern sensors and apps make effective stress-reduction techniques easily accessible

Illustration by geralt via Pixabay.

Biofeedback is a method of using technology to amplify bio-information so that it may be reintegrated back into your body, with the aim of improving mental health and wellness. In particular, you can use biofeedback as a stress reduction technique. Stress causes physiological changes in your body that have a real, adverse effect on your health. You can be healthier simply by learning to control your breathing through biofeedback to reduce unnecessary stress responses in your body.

In the past, the procedures of biofeedback were limited to psychological laboratories and expensive integrative medicine institutes, but now basic data like heart rate are available to you through reasonably inexpensive smartwatches and rings. And if you are up for the challenge, more advanced biofeedback techniques can be accomplished with a heart rate variability (HRV) sensor and smartphone application.

I trained with biofeedback technology in graduate school. Now that I am a college professor, I teach students about it in my “Health Psychology” course. Here, I’m going to tell you how it’s done.

What is biofeedback?

Bio-information comes in many forms, transmitted through your skin, muscles, organs, and nervous tissue. It is something that you and I rely on every moment of our lives, aiding us in movement, balance, and navigation of our environment, as well as mediating our interaction with others.

Over the last 100 years, technologies have evolved that allow us to do even more with these natural organic processes. This article focuses on such technology. Popular biofeedback methods include the use of tools that measure heart rate and heart rate variability, skin conductance, skin temperature, and respiration, as well as technologies that scan the brain and other bodily processes that are otherwise invisible to the naked eye (see Moss & Shaffer, 2016, for a comprehensive list). See this story for more information on the history of biofeedback.