Coach Kabeya · Neuro-OS

Your ceiling isn't discipline. It's state.

A 12-week operating protocol for people who make expensive decisions under load. Built on what MIT lab research actually shows — and measured on what can actually be measured.

Take the 4-minute baseline Open the Neuro-OS portal See the evidence

Already a member? Sign in to the Neuro-OS portal. Coaching and education, not medical or psychological care. No diagnosis, no treatment, no clinical promises. If you are in crisis, this is not the right door — see the note at the bottom.

The evidence, graded

What MIT shows — and what it doesn't.

Most performance offers cite neuroscience. Very little of it survives contact with the paper. This is the research the protocol is built on, with the caveat attached to each finding.

Solid · animal model

Stress changes the choice, not just the mood.

Chronically stressed animals shifted toward high-cost, high-reward options and stayed there for months. When the prefrontal-to-striosome circuit was switched back, normal choice returned.

Graybiel lab, MIT McGovern Institute · Cell, 2017 · MIT News

Rats and mice. This does not prove a breathing exercise changes an executive's decisions. It does explain why willpower fails under sustained load.

Solid · human study

Sleep consistency beats the night before.

In 100 MIT students tracked across a semester, sleep quality, duration and consistency together accounted for roughly 25% of the variance in performance. The night before a test predicted nothing. The preceding weeks did.

Okano, Kaczmarzyk, Dave, Gabrieli, Grossman · npj Science of Learning, 2019 · Full paper

Students, not executives. The transferable finding is the one nobody sells: consistency, not the heroic early night.

Solid · primate recording

A habit is a cost equation.

As a habit consolidated, striatal neurons tracked both reward and cost, and the brain marked a sharper start and end to the behaviour. The brain optimises cost, not just payoff.

Graybiel lab, MIT McGovern Institute · Neuron, 2015 · MIT News

Primate electrophysiology. The design implication is friction — make the right behaviour cheaper — not motivation.

What we refuse to sell you

No vagal toning. No polyvagal story. No cortisol claims.

The nervous-system market runs on claims the literature does not support. Refusing them is the product.

  • “Reset your vagal tone.” HRV is not a vagal-tone meter. A 2026 review by 39 senior physiologists called the underlying theory untenable.
  • “Rewire your nervous system.” No human trial supports that phrase for any coaching protocol, including this one.
  • “We raise interoceptive accuracy.” MIT's own heartbeat-feedback study found no change in accuracy, and its arousal effect did not survive correction.
  • “Lower your cortisol.” No meta-analytic support we could find. We will not imply it with a chart.
  • “Fixes burnout, anxiety or trauma.” That is clinical territory. We refer out; we do not morph into therapy.
  • “Clinically proven.” There is no clinical trial of this protocol. There is a baseline, a protocol and your own data.

What we do claim: a measured protocol, a written baseline, and changes you can see in your own numbers. Breathing is included as a modest tool — across 12 randomised trials it reduced self-reported stress with a small-to-medium effect (g ≈ 0.35), and those authors explicitly warn against the hype. We quote the modest number, not the inflated one.

The instrument

Twelve questions. One honest baseline.

Answer for the last four weeks, not your best week. The score is a coaching self-assessment — not a clinical or diagnostic instrument. Nothing is stored until you choose to send it.

Load — what your calendar demands

In a normal week, how often do you get one unbroken 90-minute block for work that needs real judgment?

How often do you separate a charged conversation from the decision that follows it?

How often does a normal day include at least two hours without meetings?

Recovery — the base everything sits on

How often do you get at least seven hours of sleep?

How consistent is your wake time — within 30 minutes, seven days a week?

How often do you stop screens and work at least an hour before bed?

Regulation — noticing the state before it decides

How often do you notice your state shifting before it changes your behaviour?

How often do you run a deliberate downshift before a high-stakes conversation?

How often can you think clearly again within an hour of a conflict or setback?

Decision — when, where and how the expensive calls get made

When a decision is unclear, how often do you set a deadline and decide with the information you have?

How often do you review the week's consequential decisions and what happened?

How often are your most consequential decisions made in a rested, unhurried window?

Ways to work

Three depths. One protocol.

Entry · credited

Neuro-OS Baseline

$500 · credited against the 12 weeks
  • 60-minute instrumented intake
  • Written 3-page findings, one named bottleneck
  • A 4-week protocol built around your calendar
  • Day-30 re-score so the change is visible
Take the baseline first
Core · by application

Neuro-OS 12

$7,500 · or 3 × $2,500
  • Weekly 45-minute operating audit
  • Written protocol, adjusted to the week you actually had
  • Baseline → mid-point → final re-score
  • Direct line for the decisions that will not wait
  • Quarterly review after the twelve weeks
Start with the baseline
Team

Offsite and team protocol

By review
  • Half-day or full-day team session
  • Load and decision audit across a leadership team
  • Written operating rules the team keeps
  • Follow-up re-score at 60 days
Request a scope call

The $500 baseline is credited in full if you start the 12 weeks within 30 days. Every engagement is reviewed personally; there is no checkout on this page and no automatic charge.

The first call

How the first 40 minutes run.

No pitch deck. A structured conversation with a clear ending, so neither of us wastes a quarter.

01

I tell you how this ends

I ask what is happening now, what you want, and what the gap is costing. If I can help, I say how and what it costs. If I cannot, I say that too. Then I ask for a clear yes or no.

02

You do most of the talking

The useful information is in the cost of the gap, not in my description of the programme. Expect to speak for most of the call.

03

We settle who is paying

Personal investment or employer budget. This decides the shape of the engagement, and it is the question most coaches avoid until it becomes a problem.

04

One clear decision

Yes, no, or a scheduled next step with a date. "Let me think about it" is treated as a no until it has a date on it.

Straight answers

What people ask before they start.

Is this therapy?

No. This is coaching and education. It is not psychotherapy, not a diagnosis, and not treatment for any condition. If what you are dealing with is clinical — persistent anxiety, burnout with physical symptoms, trauma, depression — the right move is a licensed clinician, and I will say so on the call rather than take the engagement.

Why cite MIT if the studies are on animals and students?

Because that is what the research actually is, and pretending otherwise is how this industry lost credibility. The animal work explains the mechanism — stress biases costly decisions, and habits are cost equations. The human sleep study gives a usable design principle: consistency over weeks, not the night before. None of it proves this protocol works. The baseline and re-score exist so you can judge that for yourself.

Is the score scientifically validated?

No, and it does not claim to be. It is a coaching self-assessment with four domains and a consistent scale. It is useful for comparison over time and for starting an honest conversation. It is not a clinical instrument and should not be used as one.

Do I need a wearable or any devices?

No. If you already have sleep or heart-rate data, it can be useful as a coaching progress record. It is not diagnostic, and no device is required to start.

What if I am training for sport, coming back from injury, or want to dunk?

That is Elevr, not Neuro-OS. Go to the coaching page — different product, different protocol.

What if I am in crisis?

This page cannot help with that and is not monitored. Contact your local emergency number or a crisis line in your country immediately. Coaching is not a substitute for urgent care.