The Unnatural Normal:

What Our Bodies Endure in an Overstimulating World

Nov 16, 2025

Our way of living has changed faster than our human biology can adapt. Many of us feel this in small but persistent ways: a low hum of stimulation, a sense of being slightly “on,” a nervous system working harder than it should just to stay balanced. Even when life looks manageable from the outside, the body speaks a different story.

Some people experience this as breath tightness or restless sleep. Others notice it as foggy thinking, irritability, low resilience or recurring minor illnesses. And many sense that something feels off, but they cannot pinpoint why.

These are not failures of health. They are signs of human biology struggling to maintain homeostasis in an environment shaped by technology and progress at the cost of human biological needs.

How do we and our bodies make sense of an overstimulating environment and understand how to support ourselves within it, in practical ways, grounded and aligned with how the human body actually functions?

The Modern Disconnect

What would life feel like if human advancement had unfolded in a way that still honoured nature, biology and wellbeing?

We celebrate our medical technologies, but I often wonder how many of these “advancements” would even be needed if our current environment supported the natural rhythms our human biology depends on.

After a recent three-day sojourn away from the city; enjoying being barefoot on sand and grass, sunshine, sea swims and sleep aligned with the sunset, I started to feel like myself again. No traffic, no being woken by others in the night, no airplanes, my anxiety softened. My mind cleared and my body steadied. A sense of mental well-being returned. A kind of internal spaciousness I rarely feel in the city.
I thought I had a sleep issue. But my little rest reminded me that I do not.

The feeling lasted twenty-four hours after returning to the urban environment before the low hum set in again. The faint buzz of overstimulation. A sharp reminder that my system is responding to something constantly, even when I’m not aware of it.

Maybe this is just how city life feels. But when I step away, my whole system exhales. The static fades. I believe this state we accept as normal, the overstimulated state, is not normal.

Invisible Pressure: How Electromagnetism Triggers Stress

If, like me, you feel anxious when learning about the environment we live in, reading about the pervasiveness of EMFs and electromagnetism can feel overwhelming. It is confronting because it relates to the world we are all immersed in, every hour of the day, with no true way to step out of it. I had an abrupt awakening after reading The Invisible Rainbow — an incredible and eye-opening book. If you choose to read it, I highly recommend following it with EMF**D, which offers more practical solutions and ways to support yourself.

The purpose of the information I have found and outlined here is to help you understand why you might feel unsettled more often, even when you are living well.

Instead of assuming your lifestyle is the problem, it may be more accurate to recognise that our current environment places a steady load on the body that it was never designed to handle. It is not loud or obvious, but it is constant enough to influence how we breathe, sleep and feel each day.

Electromagnetic fields, WiFi, Bluetooth, mobile signals, blue light and household electricity all interact with our human biology, which is shaped by nature and natural cycles. Human physiology evolved alongside sunrise and sunset, natural magnetism, open horizons, clean air, darkness at night, and long periods spent outdoors. Our cells rely on predictable cues from light, temperature and environmental rhythms.

The body’s internal electrical system runs on minerals like magnesium, potassium, sodium and calcium. These carry tiny charges that allow the heart to beat, nerves to signal and muscles to contract. When surrounded by modern frequencies at all hours, the body must continually adjust to inputs it was never meant to process.

Research suggests EMFs can increase oxidative stress inside cells, forcing mitochondria to work harder just to stay balanced. Other studies indicate electromagnetic fields can influence calcium channels on cell membranes, subtly increasing inflammation and electrical sensitivity. These effects do not feel dramatic in the moment. Instead, they accumulate quietly in the background and shape our overall sense of well-being.

Sleep is affected as well. Evening exposure to WiFi, blue light and electrical noise suppresses melatonin. Melatonin is not only a sleep hormone. It is one of our strongest antioxidants and a key driver of cellular repair. When sleep chemistry is disrupted, nighttime restoration becomes lighter, shorter and less effective.

I hope this resonates as information that is simply naming what many of us feel but have not had language for. The hum. The tension. The subtle sense of mental or physical fatigue. The sense that our bodies are working harder in the background, even when life seems manageable.

This is the reality of living in an environment that has changed faster than our biology can adapt. Understanding this is the first step toward supporting ourselves inside it.

The Subtle Signals: When the Body Starts Whispering

In conversations with friends, students and clients, I keep hearing the same quiet patterns.
A breath that won’t fully deepen.
A heart that feels unsettled for no clear reason.
A mind that fogs more easily.
A body that keeps fighting off small colds.

These are not dramatic symptoms.
They are signals from a body working harder to stay balanced in a world it was not designed for.

Below are five of the most common subtle signals and why they arise.

1. Breath and O₂–CO₂ Balance

Affectations include: shallow breathing, frequent sighing, tight ribs, tightness in the throat, or a sense of breathlessness during mild stress. Many people describe a sense of “never quite getting a full breath,” even when lung function is normal.

Why this happens: When the nervous system is overstimulated, breathing becomes faster and shallower. This lowers CO₂, and low CO₂ signals the body to stay alert. Screens, close-up focus and sustained screen attention activate the sympathetic system because near vision is an evolutionary cue for vigilance. The patterns of our days hold us in this alert mode far beyond what our biology recognises as normal.