Where Pulse should
not be relied on.

What Pulse is

An orientation aid for daily patterns across six health domains. A way to notice what is shifting before any single measurement looks alarming. A repeated check-in whose value compounds with use, because patterns become visible only across time.

What Pulse is not

Not a diagnostic tool. Not a treatment. Not a replacement for medical or psychiatric care. Not a substitute for a clinical relationship. Not designed for acute or urgent situations.

The pattern signals Pulse generates (Recovery Signal Low, Mind-Recovery Compound Strain, Systemic Dysregulation, and others) are orientation aids. They name what the data is suggesting. They do not name what is clinically true.

Conditions under which Pulse interpretations should be set asideDraft · Pending Clinical Review

The following are conditions under which Pulse interpretations are most likely to mislead and should be set aside in favor of clinical judgment. This list is a draft pending review by PT's clinical advisor and is expected to evolve.

• Active medication changes within prior 14 days Many medications, antidepressants, beta-blockers, stimulants, sleep medications, hormonal contraception, steroids, and others, meaningfully affect the physiological and subjective signals Pulse measures. Pattern interpretation during medication adjustment windows is unreliable. Discuss the change with your prescribing physician; defer Pulse-based decisions until at least two weeks past the adjustment.
• Acute illness or fever within prior seven days Acute infection alters autonomic regulation, sleep architecture, and subjective state in ways that look identical to dysregulation patterns. The Pulse signal is real, but its interpretation through the chronic-load framework is incorrect during acute illness. Wait until you have been symptom-free for at least seven days before drawing conclusions from the data.
• Recent significant life events within prior 30 days Loss, major job change, divorce, relationship transition, relocation, and similar life events produce acute stress responses that are appropriate and time-limited. Pulse may flag patterns during these windows; the patterns are real, but they reflect appropriate adaptation, not chronic dysregulation. Use the data as context, not as call to action.
• Pregnancy or post-partum period The physiological and psychological changes of pregnancy and the post-partum year fall outside the population for which Pulse’s pattern detection was designed. Pulse may surface signals; their interpretation is not validated for this population. Defer to your obstetrician, midwife, or maternal-mental-health clinician.
• Active diagnosed psychiatric condition requiring clinical management If you are in active management for a diagnosed psychiatric condition (major depressive disorder, bipolar spectrum, anxiety disorder, PTSD, eating disorder, substance use disorder), Pulse’s pattern signals may overlap with symptom patterns your clinician is tracking. Pulse is not built to manage psychiatric conditions, and its interpretation may conflict with treatment-relevant signals. Defer to your treating clinician; share Pulse data only at their request.
• Severe sleep deprivation (less than four hours per night for three or more consecutive nights) Severe sleep deprivation distorts every domain Pulse measures, including the subjective ones. Pattern interpretation is unreliable until at least three consecutive nights of normal sleep have followed.
• Substantial recent alcohol or substance use Alcohol, recreational substances, and many psychoactive medications affect HRV, sleep architecture, mood, and cognition in ways that look like dysregulation patterns. If your recent use has been substantially different from your normal baseline, Pulse’s interpretation will reflect the use, not the underlying state.

What Pulse does not measure

For clarity, Pulse does not directly measure:

• Specific clinical conditions (Pulse does not diagnose).
• Laboratory values (Pulse is not a lab and does not replace lab-based diagnostic work).
• Suicidality, self-harm risk, or psychiatric urgency (Pulse is not a crisis-response tool).
• Cardiovascular events, stroke risk, or acute medical conditions (Pulse is not a cardiac monitor).
• Hormonal status (Pulse does not measure menstrual cycle, perimenopause, andropause, or endocrine dysfunction directly).
• Pediatric or adolescent health (Pulse’s pattern detection is calibrated for adult populations only).

When to seek clinical care, regardless of what Pulse says

Beyond emergencies, conditions that warrant clinical evaluation independent of Pulse include: new or worsening physical symptoms; significant unintended weight change; persistent sleep disruption past four weeks despite hygiene changes; mood symptoms persisting more than two weeks; cognitive changes that concern you or those around you; any symptom that prompted you to wonder about a specific condition.

What we ask of you

The work of alignment is not done by this instrument. It is done by you, in your life, between the moments you open the Compass.

We will not push, schedule, or gamify. We will not count your sessions, reward your consistency, or send notifications designed to bring you back. We will be here when you return.

In a culture engineered for the opposite, this asks something. What it returns over years is what nothing else returns: progress that was yours from the beginning.

Methodology version and update cadence

This page describes Methodology v0.3, in effect since May 10, 2026. The disqualification criteria above are under active review and expected to evolve. Versioned updates will be logged on the Research page; the version number on every Pulse output page identifies which methodology produced that interpretation.

If you believe a Pulse interpretation reached you despite a condition listed here, the dispute process is the right path. Filing a dispute is encouraged, not discouraged, the criteria above will improve as cases are surfaced.