Health and Wellness

The Benefits of Binaural Beat Music for Sleep

By Ryan Spooner

Harness The Power of Your Brain For Better Sleep

Even if you are new to the term binaural beats, you have probably heard of left brain versus right brain thinkers. The popular theory states people are either left-brained or right-brained, which means that one side of their brain is dominant over the other.

If you’re mostly analytical and methodical in your thinking, you are said to be left-brained. If you tend to be more creative or artistic, you’re thought to be right-brained. This notion was popularized in the 1970’s, but the either-or proposition of the theory has been called into question by researchers from the University of Utah; using MRI technology they concluded the brain doesn’t actually favour one side over the other — they work together.

For many people it feels like their brain is over-working. Fortunately, scientists now know that we have some control over all that neuronal activity. We have the power to calm our minds. One popular method is through the use of music.

Binaural beats are a powerful form of music that is perfect for bringing more calm, relaxation, and deep sleep into our day-to-day.

What are binaural beats?

Binaural beats tap into the power of your left and right brain. It is a technique of combining two slightly different sound frequencies to create the perception of a single new frequency tone. This allows the two sides of the brain to connect and works with both.

Recently, binaural beats have been getting a lot of attention for their ability to lower stress and improve sleep, as well as to improve your cognitive performance. Scientists think that binaural beats work by exposing the brain to beats that create low-frequency tones. These soundwaves create shifts in brain waves themselves, generating slower frequency brain waves that promote deeper states of relaxation.

For example, when you listen to binaural beats through your headphones, your left ear receives a 280-hertz tone and your right ear receives a 260-hertz tone. Your brain will process and perceive a 20-hertz tone; a low-frequency sound wave that you can’t actually hear, but can perceive.

Without going to deep into brain waves (read more here), binaural beats make the brain wind down from Alpha (busy state) into Theta (the relaxed state). By transmitting a slower frequency to the brain, you are activating those low Theta frequencies and mid-Delta frequencies — providing deep relaxation and sleep.

This theory is being backed by more and more studies. Research has found that this type of sleep and relaxation music offers “a non-invasive approach to influence electrical brain activity.” It helps you relax, lower your anxiety, and can make it easier for you to fall asleep and sleep more soundly.

A small-scale study indicated that binaural beats also have the power to change hormone levels. It had the power to lower stress hormones and increase melatonin. Again, it is important to remember that this was a study of 19 people, but other studies are finding similar positive effects. Researchers at the National College of Natural Medicine in Portland, OR found that binaural beats also impacted relaxation and calming hormones, concluding that “binaural beat technology may exhibit positive effect on self-reported psychologic measures, especially anxiety.”

Calm Radio’s founder, Eric Harry, has created multiple Binaural Beat channels that are the perfect music for deep relaxation and sleep. Horizons, Whispering Angel, and My World help you get a better night sleep and slow down your heart rate.

When listening to binaural beat audio, we recommended using headphones for maximum benefit. These channels are unique for us in that don’t join a stream, but start from the beginning of the stream. We did this intentionally.

Each binaural beat channel starts with a cool down that slowly lowers your heart rate to prepare you for pure relaxation and blissful sleep. Open your Calm Radio app, put your headphones on, and enjoy pure relaxation.

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