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Health

Can a new class of wearable tech actively boost your mental health?

A range of brainwave-reading devices and other gadgets aim to monitor our nervous systems and intervene to improve our well-being. Do they work?

By Helen Thomson

14 January 2025

91av. Science news and long reads from expert journalists, covering developments in science, technology, health and the environment on the website and the magazine.

Jake Wangner/Stills

“You’ve achieved 40 seconds of uninterrupted focus.”

Apparently, this is cause for celebration. For the past 10 minutes, I have been staring at my phone, trying to move a digital ball up a hill using nothing but the power of my mind. The Mendi headset I am wearing is analysing my brain activity and reflecting that back into the game. The more I concentrate, the higher the ball climbs.

This exercise is supposedly working out my mental muscle, just as one might use weights to train physical muscle, ultimately improving my focus and reducing my stress.

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