Nervous System Regulation Bias

Lately, I’ve heard the term “nervous system regulation” much more frequently.

You may have heard it too and thought, “How intriguing!”

It is intriguing. For someone who has been spinning the record of nervous system regulation for over 6 years in my practice, this term becoming a fad feels equivalent to your favorite underground band suddenly getting a radio hit.

Like, “Dude, I was listening to Iron and Wine way before it was cool, so I am entitled to some recognition even if it is self-induced.”

Despite a hint of self-entitled angst, I am glad when I hear more people listening to nervous system advice just like I’m glad when they hear a great song writer like Sam Bean.

I do have one word of advice on a common misconception I have noticed, so let’s spill some tea.

There seems to be quite a lot of emphasis on the parasympathetic (rest & digest) activation of your nervous system.

Likely, this emphasis is due to our common societal behavior focused on achievement and an “on-the-go”, “never stop”, “give everything you got” lifestyle.

This achievement lifestyle is driven by none other than your sympathetic nervous system (and maybe your human need for validation), which is responsible for fight and flight.

As you vacillate between achieving (fighting) as much as possible until you burn out and then binge watch and binge eat to recover (escapism), you are quite practically engaging in fight and then flight.

There is great value in acknowledging you have a parasympathetic nervous system that “should” be working and recognizing when it is not working. However, we are missing a key feature of the conversation which is regulation.

This word would indicate we need healthy versions of high and low.

To understand this better, lets start with a question.

What does dysregulation mean?

We are only dysregulated when we should have a requisite response to an environmental stimulus and then that response never occurs. To clarify, you are dysregulated if you are in a scenario in which you are expected to have a sympathetic response and do not, or when you should have a parasympathetic response and do not.

Imagine going to work out but you have no energy, or going to bed and you cannot calm down to get to sleep. You would feel your responses have switched.

You may find you have a sympathetic response to fight or flight in a less demanding context like when you need to respond to a simple email. A simple task suddenly feels like an overwhelming demand.

These are all examples of what dysregulation can look like.

An appropriate response would be engaging in exercise and engaging your sympathetic nervous system to train it to activate it.

In the same way engage in breathing exercises and mindful practices to engage your parasympathetic when you’re in a resting or calm space.

What healthy regulation looks like is having healthy versions of both sympathetic and parasympathetic.

In achieving this, it is important not to neglect the sympathetic. In my opinion, I feel we have begun to demonize and rid ourselves of this mode rather than understand it’s place in our lives.

That being said, you may get better “parasympathetic” activation when going to sleep if you do engage in sympathetic activity where it’s appropriate. That’s one reason why people report better sleep after vigorous exercise.

That’s all the tea for now.

For all of you new nervous system groupies out there, I hope you lean into all the different genres of function the nervous system provides. This amazing system is an often neglected path to health, and it is one that is vital for us to be well.