Most-common questions we get about hyperbaric oxygen therapy at dreamlab. Honest answers.
“Safe” is a judgment you get to make once you understand it, not a stamp we hand you — so here's more than a yes. Hyperbaric comes in two flavors, mild and deep, and we take you to the deep end of mild: strong enough to do real work, shallow enough that the scary stories can't happen here. We run 1.5 ATA — the pressure your body feels about sixteen feet down in a pool, where your plasma holds roughly ten times more oxygen. There are no monsters in ten feet of water.
The one real risk at this pressure, barring a contraindication, is ear barotrauma — the same ears-won't-pop feeling you've had on a plane. We descend slowly and coach you through clearing them the whole way down. Beyond that there are real contraindications — uncontrolled COPD, untreated fever, certain ear-pressure issues — and we screen for those during the consultation. The full risk profile, in plain numbers, is on the safety page.
The intro is 40 minutes total. Ongoing sessions run 60 or 90 minutes total. Every session spends about 10 minutes pressurizing and 5 depressurizing, with the rest at pressure — so the 40-minute intro gives you roughly 25 minutes at 1.5 ATA, a 60-minute session about 45, and a 90-minute session about 75.
Most protocols build over a course of sessions, not in a single visit. The typical treatment plan page goes into what a course looks like.
No. The only sensation most people notice is ear pressure during descent and ascent — similar to flying, driving in mountains, or diving to the bottom of a pool. We pressurize slowly and you'll learn to equalize within the first session (swallowing, yawning, the Valsalva maneuver).
Once at pressure, you breathe normally through the mask. Quiet, calm, comfortable. Most people bring a book or just rest.
Mostly mild and short-lived. Ear pressure during descent and ascent is the most common — usually resolves within minutes. Mild fatigue or a slightly floaty feeling right after a session is normal as your body recalibrates. Dryness in the eyes or throat from breathing concentrated oxygen happens occasionally but is rare at 1.5 ATA session lengths.
The more serious effects you'll find in the hbot literature — transient myopia, oxygen-toxicity seizures, pulmonary symptoms — are clinical 2.0+ ATA phenomena and not relevant at the pressure we run. See safety & contraindications for the full risk profile and who shouldn't sit in the chamber.
No. hbot at 1.5 ATA isn't an FDA-approved treatment for the conditions we work with, so it isn't billable to insurance for those uses. You may be able to use HSA/FSA funds in some cases — check with your account provider.
Live pricing and booking are on Square. We don't quote prices on the site because they may change.
No. Dreamlab isn't a licensed medical practice and we don't diagnose, prescribe, or treat conditions in the clinical sense. We educate, we run sessions, and we share the published research.
Always talk to your doctor about anything serious — especially before adding hbot or nir to whatever they have you on. The treatment page has a more complete medical disclaimer.
Honest answer: we tell you what's proven, what's plausible, and what we don't know. The science pages cite real papers, and they explicitly acknowledge when findings come from higher-pressure protocols we don't run. We won't promise outcomes we can't deliver.
Dreamlab is built with AI — we're transparent about that too. It's small. One person, one AI partner, and the experience is being refined with every session.
Comfortable, loose clothing. No synthetics if you can avoid them (cotton is best inside the chamber). Skip lotions, hair products, and perfumes for the session. A book, headphones, or audio for the time at pressure if you want. Water is fine; food no.
The chamber is roomy enough to sit upright with space around you, and the door has a window — closer to a small tent than the tube people picture. Most people who think they'll struggle don't, but it's a real concern and worth talking through in the consultation. We can also run a short pressurization test before committing to a full session.
It depends on what you're working on. The 2025 cognitive RCT used 40 sessions at 1.5 ATA. Acute recovery work can be 1–3. Chronic-condition protocols typically run 8–12 weeks with 2–5 sessions per week. We talk through the right cadence during the consultation.