Nervous System Literacy: A Missing Skill for Musicians
There’s growing attention on the nervous system in mainstream media.
Some of it is solid. A lot of it drifts into vague language and loose claims.
That’s a problem, because for musicians, the nervous system isn’t a side topic. It sits underneath everything you do.
In this article, I want to break down:
What the nervous system actually is
Why musicians need to be nervous-system literate
How to understand and work with it through proven physiology rather than guesswork
What the Nervous System Is (and Why It Matters)
Your nervous system is your body’s neurological hardware.
It governs:
Energy levels
Focus and clarity
Stress response
Emotional regulation
Physical coordination
Muscle recruitment
It’s also the physical connection between your brain and your body. Every movement, every breath, every reaction runs through it.
It’s the lens through which you experience the world.
And yet, there’s no instruction manual.
Most people are left trying to manage symptoms without understanding the system underneath them.
For musicians, that gap matters even more.
The Performer’s Nervous System Problem
As a musician, your nervous system is pulled in two directions.
On one side:
Performance pressure
Bright lights
Noise
Audience judgement
Self-judgement
What we do is tied closely to identity. That alone is enough to drive nervous system activation.
On the other side:
Your best performances happen in calm
Flow requires regulation, not force
Enjoyment feeds connection with the audience
You need activation and control.
That’s where nervous system literacy comes in.
The Two Sides of the Nervous System
The autonomic nervous system controls everything that happens without conscious effort. Heart rate. Breathing. Digestion. Hormonal response.
It has two primary branches.
Sympathetic Nervous System (SNS)
This is the fight-or-flight response.
It:
Raises heart rate
Increases alertness
Releases adrenaline and cortisol
Prioritises muscle output
The SNS isn’t bad. Without it, you wouldn’t survive. You need it to perform.
You just don’t want it running the show all the time.
Parasympathetic Nervous System (PNS)
This is rest-and-digest.
It:
Slows heart rate
Improves digestion
Supports immune function
Drives recovery and repair
You need both systems.
The goal isn’t calm all the time.
It’s range and adaptability.
Why Most People Get Stuck in One Gear
Modern life pushes people into chronic sympathetic dominance.
Emails. Deadlines. Caffeine. Screens. Noise. Late nights. Constant input.
For musicians, add:
Irregular schedules
Travel
Performance pressure
Over time:
Cortisol stays elevated
Recovery gets suppressed
Sleep quality drops
Muscles hold tension
Focus narrows
The system forgets how to downshift.
On the flip side, too little challenge dulls sharpness and motivation.
This is why nervous system regulation isn’t about “relaxing”.
It’s about being able to accelerate and decelerate on demand.
Regulation, the Vagus Nerve, and HRV
When a challenge appears, the sympathetic system fires first.
Heart rate rises. Blood moves to large muscles. Glucose floods the system.
When the challenge passes, the parasympathetic system should take over.
The vagus nerve plays a key role here. It connects the brain and heart and helps slow things down once it’s safe.
In a well-regulated system, this switch happens smoothly.
In a dysregulated system, you get stuck:
Over-activated
Or flat and under-responsive
This is where heart-rate variability (HRV) becomes useful.
HRV measures the variation in time between heartbeats. It’s a proxy for how adaptable your nervous system is.
High HRV = flexible and resilient
Low HRV = rigid and reactive
Wearables can help track this. I use WHOOP.
The exact numbers matter less than the trend over time.
That trend tells you whether your system is adapting or accumulating load.
Why This Matters for Performance Conditioning
Nervous system literacy gives you leverage.
Instead of reacting blindly to stress, fatigue, or anxiety, you start recognising patterns.
You stack small practices that:
Improve recovery
Increase emotional control
Support consistency
Make flow more accessible
Over time, those practices become tools.
That’s the aim.
Not control for its own sake, but the ability to work with your system rather than against it.
That’s it for today!
