Binaural beats are supposed to produce a meditative, relaxing state faster than actual meditation. All those same benefits you get from meditation should be possible with binaural beats. Some people use them to fall asleep, while others will use them to lower their blood pressure or reduce stress.
Do they really work? How effective are they at helping you to relax? I want to delve into some of the science behind this technology and how to use binaural beats to sleep. If you’ve never heard of this before, it may surprise you what you can do just by listening to these sounds and allowing them to take effect on your body.
What Are Binaural Sounds
When you listen to two tones at once, with a different tone going into each ear through headphones, and each of these tones is at a different frequency, it has an effect on you. The brain can process the different beats created by binaural sounds.
You might notice the slight difference in tone between the sounds coming into each of your ears when you listen to binaural noise. You’ll need a headphone for these kinds of sounds, as you do need to have sounds pumped into each of your ears and not overlap.
The two different sounds create in illusionary effect. In other words, it tricks your brain into thinking that it should be meditating. If the illusion happened, the frequency of the two tones needs to be below 1000 Hertz. The difference between them has to be no greater than 30 Hertz. Of course, you will need to listen to the two tones separately, having one pass through each of your ears.
Binaural beats are sometimes used in music as a way to get instruments in tune. It’s only in recent years that some of their meditative, relaxing benefits had been discovered.
There are a few different kinds of binaural beats that operate in a variety of ranges. Each of these has different effects on your body and your mind. Choosing a binaural beat that will benefit you the most will require that you understand these different ranges and how they can affect you.
The delta range of binaural beats can help your body to relax and can get you into deep sleep more easily and keep you there. This range operates between one and four Hertz, so it’s a very, very low range.
Up from there is the 4-8 Hertz range call the theta range. This is supposed to help you fall into REM sleep, which is where most of your dreams occur. Like the delta range, you can use the theta range to relax and reduce anxiety. Some people also use it to help them in their artistic endeavors, as there is some evidence to show that it may help stimulate the creative part of the brain.
The next range up is the alpha frequency, which operates between 8 and 13 Hertz. People who use this range say that it can help too lower anxiety levels and help them boost their mood, so it’s easier for them to stay positive and happy. This is the range that might be recommended for someone who is suffering from depression or grief.
The final binaural beat range is from 14-31 Hertz and is called the lower beta frequency. This helps people to focus and stay alert and may even improve memory.
What Are the Benefits of Binaural Beats
I told you already about some of the benefits you get from using binaural beats depend on which one you use. I want to go into some detail about how they can help you, though, and some different ways you might use them.
Meditative State
Are you feeling stressed out, worried, anxious, or fearful? Getting into a meditative state can help, and binaural beats have been shown to help people achieve that mental state. In fact, you can get into a meditative state faster using binaural beats than you can with conventional meditation.
Improve Mood
Binaural beats can help you to feel less stressed and anxious. As they relax and calm you, your nerves won’t feel quite as sensitive. You’ll feel more peaceful, and that can help with feelings of fearfulness or concern. Many times, the stress and worry we feel makes the situation worse. Then, when it comes time to make a decision, we can make poor decisions because of how stressed we are. Relaxing and pacifying your mind can help you to think more clearly and make the right choice.
Focus
Students will often use binaural beats to help them study. In preparation for an exam or just in doing routine studies, utilizing binaural beats can help you to focus and concentrate. That means that as you read, you will get more out of what you read. It should stick with you as well, since these sounds can help with memory retention. Added focus and concentration aren’t helpful just for school, though; you can also benefit from binaural beats to help you focus during work.
Medical Benefits
Because binaural beats can help to lower stress levels and reduce anxiety, they are helpful for people who have high blood pressure or heart problems. Listening to these sounds can help to reduce blood pressure and decrease the strain on the heart. They can help you get your blood pressure, heart rate, and stress levels under control and get back to a healthier physical status quickly.
Pain Management
Anything that takes your mind off of stress and worry is going to help you be able to handle pain better. If you are in pain from an injury or a medical problem, then you will likely be stressed and agitated. Listening to binaural beats can help to ease some of the symptoms for you and foster a more positive attitude when you’re not feeling very good. It can be tough to stay positive and happy when you’re unwell, but listening to these kinds of sounds might help you achieve that positive mood.
Where Can I Find Binaural Beats
Are you wondering how much it will cost to get binaural beats to listen to? Are you worried about the machinery involved and how complicated the process will be?
All you need is a set of headphones and access to YouTube, really. You can find multiple binaural beat videos on music streaming sites like YouTube and others. A lot of these are available for free, but there are paid binaural beat downloads available across the Internet as well. It doesn’t take more than a quick search online to find tons of different ways to stream audio of binaural beats. You’ll be feeling better in no time.
Just make sure that you choose authentic binaural beats to listen to. Not everything that’s labeled as binaural beats actually will be. As you can see from reading this article, there are some technical aspects to recreating the proper beats and ensuring that different frequencies are streamed to different ears. For the effect to work, it has to meet the technical requirements I listed earlier.
You should also be aware that the research surrounding binaural beats is limited. Some of the benefits I’ve listed in this article are not widely verified, so there’s no guarantee that you will be able to enjoy all of those benefits. So, keep in mind that your body may be different from someone else’s in a way that determines how binaural beats affect you. Where one person can enter a meditative state quickly with these sounds, another person may find it nearly impossible.
Since binaural beats are easy to find and free to listen to, you can give it a try yourself and see how it works for you. Test it out and determine if there are any benefits to be had before you completely dismiss this idea. It may help you to fall asleep faster, feel better, and relieve anxiety and even depression in some cases.
