Binaural beats are a fascinating and exciting technology that harnesses the brain’s responsiveness to sound to move you into a state of deep relaxation, relieve anxiety, and help you sleep better.
Have you heard of binaural beats?
It’s a technique that’s been around for a while, but recently is getting a lot of attention for its ability to lower stress and improve sleep, as well as to improve cognitive performance.
Patients often tell me that they fall asleep to relaxing music. They seem to find it really helps them let go of active thoughts and quiet their mind—which, like yours probably does, tends to race from one thing to the next all day long (“I can’t turn off my brain” syndrome).
What are binaural beats?
Sounds like a new music genre, right?
Not exactly. Binaural beats are a technique of combining two slightly different sound frequencies to create the perception of a single new frequency tone.
The theory is that when exposed to two different frequencies at the same time, one in each ear, the brain actually perceives a single tone that is the difference between the two separate frequencies. Your brain, in a sense, “tunes” to this new frequency.
You listen to binaural beats using headphones. In each ear, you receive sound at a slightly different frequency (often accompanied by some relaxing background sounds).
If your left ear receives a 300-hertz tone and your right ear receives a 280-hertz tone, your brain will process and absorb a 10-hertz tone. That’s a very low-frequency soundwave—one you can’t actually hear. But you don’t need to hear the sound for your brain to be affected by it.
Why is exposure to these soundwaves helpful to sleep and relaxation?
Science shows that exposure to binaural beats can create changes in the brain’s degree of arousal.
Listening to these sounds that create a low-frequency tone, research indicates, triggers a slow-down to brainwave activity—and that may help you relax, lower your anxiety, and make it easier for you to fall asleep and sleep more soundly.
A binaural beat is an illusion created by the brain when you listen to two tones with slightly different frequencies at the same time.
Your Brain and Binaural BeatsYour brain interprets the two tones as a beat of its own. The two tones align with your brain waves to produce a beat with a different frequency. This frequency is the difference in hertz (Hz) between the frequencies of the two tones.
For example, if you are listening to a 440 Hz tone with your left ear and a 444 Hz tone with your right ear, you would be hearing a 4 Hz tone.
When you listen to binaural beats, your brain activity matches the frequency set by the frequency of the beat. This is called the frequency-following effect. This means you can use binaural beats to entrain your mind to reach a certain mental state.
Binaural beats appear to be a potential tool in the fight against anxiety, stress, and negative mental states.
Research has found that listening daily to audio with binaural beats may have positive effects on:
Anxiety
Memory
Mood
Creativity
Attention
Learning to meditate isn’t always easy. Binaural beats won’t work for everyone, and they aren’t considered a cure for any particular condition.
Disclaimer: The information on this POST is not intended or implied to be a substitute for professional advice. The opinions expressed within this article are the personal opinions of the author. All content, including text, graphics, images and information, contained on or available through this article is for general information purposes / educational purposes only, and to ensure discussion or debate.
Thank you …We will talk about four major types of brainwaves:
Beta.
These brainwaves are associated with high levels of alertness and arousal. When beta brainwave patterns dominate, we’re primed to focus and concentrate, to make decisions and think analytically.
When you’re analyzing an issue at work, you’re probably in a beta-dominant state. Beta waves are fast, with a higher frequency (between 15-40 hertz). At the higher levels of this range, beta waves are associated with anxiety.
Alpha.
Alpha brainwave patterns are associated with a state of wakeful relaxation.
Slower and lower in frequency (between 9-14 hertz), alpha waves are dominant when we’re calm and relaxed, but still alert. Alpha waves are associated with states of meditation—your yoga class probably puts you in an alpha state—and also with your ability to be creative.
Theta.
This brainwave pattern is associated with deep relaxation and with some stages of sleep, including the lighter stages of non-REM (NREM) sleep. REM sleep itself is mostly composed of beta wave and other activity that’s similar to an alert, waking brain.
Deep meditation produces theta waves, which are slower and of lower frequency (between 5-8 hertz) than Alpha waves.
That murky barrier between sleep and wakefulness, when you’re drifting in and out of sleep, and your thoughts feel dreamlike and difficult to remember?
That’s a theta-dominant state of consciousness.
Delta.
If you’ve been reading this blog for a while, you’ve heard me talk about slow-wave, delta sleep. Delta waves are slow, low-frequency brainwaves (between 1.5-4 hertz) that are the dominant brainwave pattern of deep (stage 3 and 4), and NREM sleep.
Do you want to add a word or two?….
As you can see, the faster (and higher frequency) the brainwave pattern, the greater your state of arousal. The slower and lower frequency brainwaves are, the deeper your state of relaxation—or sleep.
Scientists have observed for decades that exposure to sound waves can affect brainwave patterns. In a process called entrainment (aka “tuning the brain”), when exposed to sound waves at certain frequencies, brainwave patterns adjust to align with those frequencies.
This is one way scientists think binaural beats work. By exposing the brain to beats that create low-frequency tones in the brain, these sound waves create shifts in brainwaves themselves, generating slower frequency brainwaves that promote deeper states of relaxation.
Your comments ….
How binaural beats might improve sleep
Brainwave activity during sleep is largely distinct from brain activity when you’re awake. (REM sleep is an exception: During REM, your brain is active in ways very much like when you’re awake.)
During non-REM sleep, the slower, lower frequency theta and delta waves dominate, compared to the alpha and beta waves that are prominent when you’re alert and active.
A therapy that slows brainwave activity, helping to produce low-frequency waves, is likely to aid relaxation and sleep. But it’s not only lowering brainwave frequency that binaural beats may offer to sleep and relaxation.
A small study (19 people) has found that exposure to binaural beats is associated with changes to three hormones important to sleep and well-being:
DHEA functions as a kind of master hormone, helping to produce other hormones in the body on an as-needed basis. DHEA is critical to immune function and disease protection.
Particularly significant for sleep is that DHEA works to suppress cortisol, a hormone that stimulates alertness and provokes stress at elevated levels.
The study found that 68 percent of participants had increases to DHEA after using binaural beats.
Cortisol is an arousal hormone, stimulating alertness and attention. Cortisol levels rise and fall in connection to circadian rhythms—cortisol levels rise to their peak levels first thing in the morning, just in time for you to be active for the day.
Too-high cortisol levels are associated with insomnia, as well as more time spent in light sleep, rather than deep sleep.
The study found that 70 percent of participants experienced a reduction in cortisol after exposure to binaural beats.
Melatonin promotes and regulates sleep. Melatonin levels rise dramatically in the evening, and the hormone works to relax your body and mind, preparing you to fall asleep.
The study found 73 percent of participants had higher levels of melatonin after using binaural beats.
The average increase was more than 97 percent.
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