Binaural Beats: Benefits for Sleep and Anxiety
How do you relax before you fall asleep? Maybe you follow a guided meditation, or perhaps you listen to a podcast or peaceful music. Listening to audio with binaural beats may benefit your mental health and promote creativity and focus. But what exactly are binaural beats? They aren’t a music genre.
Binaural beats are not a sound but an auditory phenomenon that occurs when listening to two different frequencies at once. They are an auditory phenomenon created by your brain in response to hearing specific tones in each ear. This is called a binaural beat.
For a binaural beat to work, the two tones have to have frequencies less than 1000 Hz, and the difference between the two tones can’t be more than 30 Hz. The tones also have to be listened to separately, one through each ear. Binaural beats are considered auditory illusions.
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.
The creation of a third sound is caused by the same part of the brain that helps you determine the location of a sound. To hear the binaural beat, you must have sound coming in each ear. When binaural beats are sustained over a period of time, they can synchronize with your brain waves.
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. To understand how binaural beats may help relaxation, mood, mental performance, and sleep, you need to know a little bit about brain waves and what they indicate about our state of consciousness, emotion, and mental activity. Brainwaves are created from the pulses of electrical activity our neurons exhibit as they communicate with each other.
Binaural beats can be created at different frequencies. When you listen to a sound with a certain frequency, your brain waves will synchronize with that frequency. The theory is that binaural beats can help create the frequency needed for your brain to create the same waves commonly experienced during a meditation practice. The use of binaural beats in this way is sometimes called brain wave entrainment technology.
Brainwave Patterns and Binaural Beats
Brainwave activity during sleep is largely distinct from brain activity when you’re awake. Scientists have observed for decades that exposure to sound waves can affect brainwave patterns. This is one way scientists think binaural beats work. A therapy that slows brainwave activity, helping to produce low-frequency waves, is likely to aid relaxation and sleep.
Here's a look at the different brainwave patterns and their associations:
- Beta (β) pattern: Beta waves range between 13 Hz and 30 Hz. These waves in the brain are linked to an active and alert mind. Higher levels of beta waves are also associated with anxiety. 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).
- Alpha (α) pattern: Ranging between 8 Hz and 13 Hz, alpha waves indicate a relaxed and restful mind. 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.
- Theta (θ) pattern: During stage one of sleep, which is the lightest stage of sleep, your brain produces theta waves at a frequency between 4 Hz and 8 Hz. Theta waves are also associated with drowsiness and meditation. 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?
- Delta (δ) pattern: The slowest brain waves are delta waves. These waves have a frequency under 4 Hz. As you transition into deeper sleep stages, your brain switches from theta waves to delta waves. If you’ve been reading this blog for a while, you’ve heard me talk about slow-wave, delta sleep. As you can see, the faster (and higher frequency) the brainwave pattern, the greater your state of arousal.
You can also decide which brain wave fits your desired state. In general:
- Binaural beats in the delta (1 to 4 Hz) range have been associated with deep sleep and relaxation.
- Binaural beats in the theta (4 to 8 Hz) range are linked to REM sleep, reduced anxiety, relaxation, as well as meditative and creative states.
- Binaural beats in the alpha frequencies (8 to 13 Hz) are thought to encourage relaxation, promote positivity, and decrease anxiety.
- Binaural beats in the beta frequencies (14 to 30 Hz) have been linked to increased concentration and alertness, problem-solving, and improved memory.
- Binaural beats of 40 Hz were found to be helpful in enhancing training and learning, according to a 2020 study.
Potential Benefits of Binaural Beats
With several human studies to back up the health claims, 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
In addition to potentially boosting sleep-promoting hormones, binaural beats may also reduce our perceptions of pain. A 2017 study found that binaural beats used in combination with visual stimulation led to reductions in patients’ perception of acute pain. This is good news on its own-and also promising news for sleep.
A growing body of research suggests that binaural beats can reduce different forms of anxiety, from mild to chronic. One especially interesting study looked at the effects of binaural beats on anxiety among patients preparing to undergo surgery-a life circumstance that is pretty anxiety provoking for most anyone.
Scientists are also looking at how binaural beats affect cognitive abilities, and whether this is a therapy that can be used to enhance cognitive functions such as learning, memory, focus, and creativity. Attention may also be improved by using binaural beats. Studies have shown that binaural beats may affect levels of dopamine, a hormone that plays a broad role in cognition and a particular role in creative thinking.
Some studies have found that binaural beats can affect cognitive function positively or negatively, depending on the specific frequency generated. For example, a study of long-term memory found that beta-frequency binaural beats improved memory, while theta-frequency binaural beats interfered with memory. This is something for scientists to continue to examine closely.
When studying the impact of binaural beats on cognition, researchers often find that individual differences matter in whether the therapy delivers a benefit. Right now, it looks as though at least some of the benefits of binaural beats may work for some people, and not for others.
Research into binaural beats is expanding, but it’s still early. We’ve got a lot more to learn about how this technique affects brain function and the ways we might use it most effectively. There is a lot to like about this technology as a potential treatment for sleep problems. It’s low impact and non-invasive, it doesn’t rely on chemical drugs, it’s inexpensive, and, for most people, likely easy to adopt and maintain.
Hormonal Effects:
- Melatonin: 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.
- Cortisol: 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.
- DHEA: 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.
Preliminary research suggests that binaural beats can help you sleep better. A study using binaural beats at a delta frequency of 3 Hz showed that these beats induced delta activity in the brain. As a result, the use of binaural beats lengthened stage three sleep. Other small studies indicate the potential of binaural beats for better sleep, less sleepiness, and increased ease of waking up. On the other hand, some researchers have argued there is insufficient evidence linking binaural beats with lessened anxiety or improved sleep.
Meditation is the practice of calming the mind and tuning down the number of random thoughts that pass through it. A regular meditation practice has been shown to reduce stress and anxiety, slow down the rate of brain aging and memory loss, promote mental health, and lengthen attention span. Practicing meditation regularly can be quite difficult, so people have looked to technology for help.
How to Use Binaural Beats
All you need to experiment with binaural beats is a binaural beat audio and a pair of headphones or earbuds. You can easily find audio files of binaural beats online, such as on YouTube or via downloaded audio files to your mp3 player or mobile device.
Here’s an example: Let’s say you’re listening to a sound in your left ear that’s at a frequency of 132 Hertz (Hz). And in your right ear, you’re listening to a sound that’s at a frequency of 121 Hz. Your brain, however, gradually falls into synchrony with the difference - or 11 Hz. Instead of hearing two different tones, you instead hear a tone at 11 Hz (in addition to the two tones given to each ear).
When listening to binaural beats, it’s best to sit in a comfortable place free of distractions. Listening to the binaural beat audio for at least 30 minutes each day in your headphones ensures that the rhythm is entrained (has fallen into synchronization) throughout the brain. You can experiment with the length of time you listen to the binaural beats to find out what works for you. For example, if you’re experiencing high levels of anxiety or stress, you may want to listen to the audio for a full hour or longer. Remember, you must use headphones for binaural beats to work. You may also want to listen with your eyes closed.
If you decide to use binaural beats in hopes of improving sleep, there are numerous binaural beat tracks available online. You can also purchase CDs or audio files featuring binaural beats. Oftentimes, these tracks have white noise or other gentle sounds to help you relax. The length of binaural beat tracks vary.
When listening to binaural beats, make sure you have sound entering each ear. You can wear headphones or earbuds, whichever is more comfortable.
Summary of Studies:
| Study | Participants | Findings |
|---|---|---|
| 2005 Controlled Study | ~100 people undergoing surgery | Binaural beats significantly reduced pre-operative anxiety. |
| 2007 Uncontrolled Study | 8 adults | Listening to delta frequency binaural beats for 60 days reduced anxiety and increased the overall quality of life. |
| 2011 Randomized Controlled Trial | 291 patients in the emergency department | Significant decreases in anxiety levels in patients exposed to audio with embedded binaural beats. |
| 2019 Study | N/A | Combination of binaural beats and ASMR suggested to be more beneficial than either separately. |
Safety and Side Effects
Currently, only a few negative side effects of using binaural beats have been reported. Some listeners report irritability or frustration while listening to the beats.
There are no known side effects to listening to binaural beats, but you’ll want to make sure that the sound level coming through your headphones isn’t set too high. Prolonged exposure to sounds at or above 85 decibels can cause hearing loss over time. This is roughly the level of noise produced by heavy traffic. Binaural beat technology could be a problem if you have epilepsy, so you should speak with your doctor before trying it. More research is needed to see if there are any side effects to listening to binaural beats over a long period of time.
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.