

Has anyone done brain stimulation? Is it really better than caffeine? - UXDork

Apparently it&#x27;s pretty safe and companies are coming out with brain stimulator products that work better than coffee. The research on creativity + athletic abilities is inconsistent, but it seems to consistently work at waking you up and helping with concentration.<p>I&#x27;ve heard foc.us has unsafe devices that spike in currents.<p>Has anyone tried a tcds device? Did it work? Who did you buy it from or did you make it yourself?
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smt88
My friend is a neuroscience Ph.D. and has done research into tDCS.

She says that tDCS devices sold to the public are certainly a scam, and they
may even be unsafe. Don't buy them.

She also said that high-quality studies have pretty much uniformly debunked
tDCS as having any sort of effect. The only studies with positive results were
impossible to reproduce or didn't hold up with larger, better-controlled
trials.

Whatever positve effect people are getting, they're likely feeling a placebo
effect. My friend also often says that the most important factor in alertness
(assuming at least a few hours of sleep) is motivation.

So someone who gets up to do a job they hate will believe they have less
energy, even if they badly _want_ to be awake. Likewise, someone getting up to
do a job they love can hardly wait to get up, and they feel extremely alert,
even with the same amount of rest.

