I Tried Higherdose’s $1,400 Pemf Mat To Help Me Relax. I Got Weird Dreams And Disappointment

I person a $1,400 mat stashed nether my pinkish velvet couch.

It’s my roommate’s PEMF and infrared therapy mat, and yes, it costs astir arsenic overmuch arsenic my monthly rent. Measuring 6ft successful length, made of vegan leather, layered pinch bright-blue amethyst and obsidian crystals and weighing arsenic overmuch arsenic a Siberian husky, nan HigherDose mat makes my basal yoga mat consciousness for illustration a flimsy slab of cardboard.

The wellness marque claims its bestselling mat tin boost mood, improve sleep and velocity up musculus betterment pinch “total-body relaxation”. All you person to do is walk 20 minutes lying connected it: nan marque says “a speedy convention connected nan mat is balanced to an hr of yoga aliases meditation.”

HigherDose is astatine nan forefront of our corporate obsession pinch biohacking, which has popularized wellness treatments specified arsenic Oura rings and red ray therapy masks. The marque sells a zany-sounding database of products: infrared sauna blankets, red ray showerhead filters and moreover a red ray shot cap that claims to beforehand fuller hair. As for nan mat, celebrities including Julianne Hough and Gwyneth Paltrow person touted its benefits. It’s moreover been raved astir successful different review outlets.

In my roommate’s case, she uses nan mat’s “focus” mounting nan most. “I consciousness for illustration I get activity done,” she told maine astir utilizing nan mat for nan past year. It besides helped her relax.

Photograph: Bridget Ortiz

This each sounded for illustration a dream to me. As a certified yoga coach and somewhat of a wellness junkie, I’ve experimented pinch supplements, tried trendy magnesium tonics and written astir mindfulness and running. I’m perpetually sore from jogging upwards of 20 miles per week. And my type A characteristic often leaves maine emotion overwhelmed and anxious.

So I decided to walk a week testing it out. (My roommate graciously agreed to it.) I besides asked experts studying PEMF therapy astir nan subject down a mat for illustration this.

At a glance

HigherDose

Infrared PEMF Pro Mat

$1,374

Does PEMF therapy work?

Pulsed electromagnetic section (PEMF) therapy delivers electromagnetic vibrations to your cells, which tin stimulate them to beforehand treatment and reduce pain, according to studies. It whitethorn sound for illustration sci-fi, but PEMF has been astir since nan 1970s. It earned FDA support for aesculapian usage successful 1979 and has since been adopted by immoderate physical therapists and professional athletes for recovery.

Pulsed electromagnetic section (PEMF) therapy delivers electromagnetic vibrations to your cells. Photograph: Bridget Ortiz

Does infrared power therapy work?

HigherDose’s mat besides uses acold infrared power technology. Commonly utilized successful saunas, this type of therapy has been shown to dainty ailments specified arsenic fatigue, debased humor unit and depression. Because I utilized some of nan mat’s settings astatine once, my results could beryllium chalked up to nan mat’s power therapy too.

As for those embedded crystals, nan marque claims they “amplify benefits”. No technological studies person proven that they person immoderate benignant of beingness wellness benefit, though they could thief soothe aliases uplift you done nan placebo effect.

How I tested

Photograph: Bridget Ortiz

I spent 1 week comparing HigherDose’s mat to Manduka’s modular rubber yoga mat, nan 1 I typically use.

Manduka

X Yoga Mat 5mm

from $59

Every evening, I placed them beside each different successful my surviving room and laid level connected my backmost for 20 minutes connected each mat, nan magnitude of clip HigherDose suggests for a “full PEMF cycle”. Each day, I alternated nan bid that I tested them in. I constricted activity while connected nan mats and didn’t talk, alternatively closing my eyes aliases reference connected my Kindle (The Mad Wife and You’ll Never Know).

The HigherDose mat’s 4 PEMF frequencies purportedly person different effects: “sleep” (3Hz), “grounding” (7.8Hz), “create (10 Hz), and “focus” (23Hz). I opted for 3Hz because I’m ever eager to improve my sleep, and nan highest infrared power mounting since it’s been truthful acold out.

Photograph: Bridget Ortiz

Using my Garmin watch’s “health snapshot” feature, I measured heart complaint variability and stress level aft lying connected each mat. Heart complaint variability is 1 indicator of really good your assemblage responds to stress. A dip tin bespeak that your assemblage is struggling to recover from beingness aliases intelligence stressors.

My week pinch HigherDose’s PEMF mat

On time one, I unceremoniously lugged nan 43lb mat retired from underneath our couch.

To activate its infrared power and electromagnetic frequencies, I plugged a bulky, square-shaped controller into 1 of its corners. (The buttons and dials connected nan controller’s show make it look for illustration thing sold by a mad scientist alternatively than a buzzy wellness brand.) Then I adjusted nan mat’s settings, listening to nan high-pitched beep arsenic I raised nan power mounting to “high” and nan PEMF wave to “sleep.”

Photograph: Bridget Ortiz

The infinitesimal I laic backmost connected nan mat, nan infrared power enveloped maine successful its warmth. I felt calm and moreover a spot drowsy. After 20 minutes, I was fresh to crawl into furniture and autumn dormant – though I’d felt a akin effect aft a cup of chamomile beverage ($0.50 a bag) aliases a basking bath (included successful my rent). And for each nan mat’s bells and whistles, my assemblage didn’t consciousness recharged “at nan cellular level”, arsenic nan marque claims.

And nan pursuing nights, my precious slumber (of which I request astatine slightest 8 hours to function) didn’t improve. Rather, I was waking up astir 1 americium each night, thing that wasn’t emblematic for me. I was besides experiencing unsettlingly vivid dreams that matched up pinch erstwhile I started testing. (That first greeting after, I silently cursed nan mat. It peeked astatine maine innocently from underneath our couch.)

“Some group tin initially consciousness much stimulated earlier their strategy settles into a parasympathetic response,” said Jessica Alcalde, nan brand’s vice-president of product. The parasympathetic tense strategy manages rest. “In those cases, we urge earlier-evening usage aliases starting pinch shorter sessions.”

Photograph: Bridget Ortiz

By halfway successful my testing journey, though, I still wondered if nan mat was simply a glorified, oversized heating pad. On time three, I’d tally 7 frigid miles. Then I had my nightly convention connected nan mat, which progressive yet different struggle of moving its dense weight retired from underneath my couch. The greeting after, I woke up eager to consciousness nan treatment magic of fancy PEMF tech.

To my disappointment, my calves still felt tight, my feet still achy.

Dr Robert Dennis, an technologist and interrogator who developed PEMF devices for Nasa, thought I should hold longer. “Forty years from now, erstwhile you’re successful your mid-60s, nan effect will beryllium spectacularly profound. It’s for illustration a status relationship – it’s amended erstwhile you’re older,” he said. (Dennis is simply a peculiarly beardown proponent of PEMF therapy, and has developed devices utilizing nan exertion for different business. He besides told maine that, having personally felt symptom alleviation from utilizing it, “my intent successful life is to make this disposable to everybody.”) HigherDose’s Alcalde besides said nan mat’s PEMF tech supported musculus betterment “more cumulatively”.

In caller Guardian sum of at-home PEMF mats, however, different master was much skeptical. Gary Housley, nan chair of physiology astatine nan University of New South Wales, was referring to mats pinch only this exertion (no infrared power aliases crystals), but told our wellness newsman that nan class was “highly variable”. The electromagnetic fields they generated were “very, very weak”, he said, compared to general PEMF aesculapian devices.

My results

Photograph: Bridget Ortiz

As a yoga instructor, I pridefulness myself connected being successful tune pinch my body. To my surprise, though, my Garmin saw a mini bosom complaint variability (HRV) bump aft I laic connected nan PEMF infrared mat – astir 2 milliseconds higher than usual. It typically ranges successful nan mid-90s but tin driblet arsenic debased arsenic nan precocious 80s erstwhile I’m stressed.

This alteration is “not thing that group tin sometimes feel,” Dr Magda Havas said erstwhile I asked her astir it. Her studies person concluded that PEMF could thief trim symptom from osteoarthritis.

But HRV does people up and down successful milliseconds passim nan day, and my Garmin showed somewhat little proprietary “stress levels” while utilizing my regular mat. I didn’t feel much aliases little stressed connected either one. In different words, nan information was benignant of a draw. If nan HigherDose mat (or nan Manduka mat) was doing thing measurable for my tense system, my watch couldn’t confidently beryllium it aft a week.

HigherDose

Infrared PEMF Pro Mat

$1,374

It’s imaginable that PEMF exertion would person helped much if I utilized it longer. “Once your cells are energized, it past affects your organs. And erstwhile your organs are energized, it affects your full body. So it takes time,” Havas said.

Still, you whitethorn not consciousness for illustration spending nan balanced of an yearly rank to a yoga workplace connected a mat, if you tin already consciousness relaxed from 15-minute meditations aliases a $20 heating pad (our contributor Maria Ricapito recommended this “cushy” one).

As for maine and my much budget-conscious quest for amended slumber and little stress: I’d alternatively read a caller successful bed – aliases simply agelong it retired connected my bully ol’ rubber mat.