Brainwave entrainment through the use of binaural beats is a scientific method that helps you go from alert to relaxed to asleep within minutes by using a process to alter your brainwaves. Sounds like something straight out of a science fiction novel, but brainwave entrainment is a very real and very effective way to help you sleep.
Your alertness is linked to the dominant frequency of of your brainwaves. So if you’re feeling alert and focused, your brainwaves are in the beta frequency but if you’re feeling relaxed, they’re likely to be in the alpha state.
Brainwave entrainment through the use of binaural beats is a technique offering a fast and natural method to put your mind into a state of deep relaxation.
To sleep, your brainwave frequency needs drop to a slow delta. This can be hard, especially after a busy day. Your brain stays active preventing you from the nourishing sleep you need.
By using Binaural Beats, you can quickly induce the frequencies associated with sleep into your brain, within minutes. Scientists discovered that the brain synchronises itself to the dominant frequency. So by inducing a new lower frequency with binaural beats, your brain begins to lower it’s frequency to match this new frequency.
It’s a powerful technology that I’ve been using myself for years with very good results.
How Binaural Beats Work
Your brain enters into several different states during the day with each of these states generating its own unique frequency. These are:
Beta (13 – 40 Hz) – Active, alert and focused- Alpha (8 -12 Hz) – Relaxed, calm and creative
- Theta (4 – 8 Hz) – drowsy, light sleep and dreams
- Delta (less then 4 Hz) – Deep sleep
So to get to sleep, you need to go all way down theta, touching delta. This is why sleep experts recommend a wind down period of at least half an hour before you go to bed for this very reason, to allow your mind’s frequency to begin its decent.
Essentially, the faster we can get to theta and delta, the faster and easier it will be get to relax and fall asleep.
Brainwave entrainment is a method to alter the frequency of your brainwaves by listening to audible tones containing the desired frequency. So if you wanted to sleep, you would listen to audio that begins at your current state and slowly drops to a delta frequency. By introducing these new lower frequencies, your mind begins to lower its own brainwaves to match this new frequency.
This was discovered centuries ago but was considered as impractical since humans can’t hear anything below 20hz. The lower frequency wouldn’t be able to be heard and so couldn’t be processed by the brain.
During the 19th century a solution to this problem was found by using what’s called binaural beats.
Binaural beats is a method where two sound waves of different frequencies are introduced into each ear. These frequencies when processed by the brain cancel each other out, creating a whole new frequency. So if we had a tone of 500 Hz in one ear and a 510 Hz tone in the other, the result would be a 10 Hz tone. So while a 10 Hz tone couldn’t be heard, binaural beats when processed by the brain creates the same affect of the 10 Hz tone.
Downloadable Binaural Beats
There are two places I personally recommend for brainwave therapy. Brain Sync and The Unexplainable Store.
Brain Sync
Brain Sync have three main products to help promote sleep using brainwave entrainment:
- Sound Sleep – Soothing, relaxing music set to delta waves
- Slow Wave Sleep – Delta waves set to the sound of ocean waves
- Deep Sleep – Delta waves with dreamy music containing subliminal messages
Out of all three, my personal favourite is Slow Wave Sleep but I would happily recommend the other two. Brain Sync provide a preview of each product so I would recommend listening to all three before deciding with one to get.
For each product you can either download the MP3 or buy it on CD. CD is often more expensive but I’ve noticed they often come an additional track which doesn’t come on the MP3 version.
Their CDs are backed with a 60 day money back guarantee but their MP3s are non refundable so if you’re not sure if brainwave entrainment is for you, the CD version may be the best option. Or alternatively you can buy from The Unexplainable Store which offers a 60 day money back guarantee and you get to keep your MP3.
The Unexplainable Store
The Unexplainable Store offers a range of binaural beats to relax you all the way down to the depths of the delta wave deep sleep.
Out of the four, the one I most recommend for insomnia is Deep Sleep. This 35 minute MP3 gently brings you down and ends in deep delta. By that time you’ll either be fast asleep or deeply relaxed, just on the edge of sleep.
If you haven’t got insomnia but want induce deep sleep faster, then I recommend Dive Quickly and Deeply. It’s a recording that starts at alpha taking you all the way down to deep delta in just 10 minutes.
Because this one doesn’t mess around, I recommend you relax before listening to it so it doesn’t leave you behind. If you’re heading straight to bed after a busy day and want to get to sleep fast but don’t have time to relax before hand, then the gentler Deep Sleep would be the way to go, giving you space to relax deeply before going into theta and delta.
Alternatively, you can grab their Sleep Package containing all 4 for a discounted price. That way you’ve got something for every situation.
The Unexplainable store is unique in that it also offers what’s called isochonic beats. Instead of two tones, isochonic beats contains just one single tone that pulses to create the desired frequency. The advantages of this is that you don’t need headphones to listen to them and they are said to work faster than binaural beats because they don’t require your brain to process anything to produce the resulting tone. I haven’t actually tried isochonic tones myself so I can’t comment on their effectiveness, but they do appear very interesting.
Summary
Brainwave entrainment through binaural beats is a powerful way to alter your brainwaves and induce deep sleep. Perfect if your mind is full of thoughts, you’re suffering with any anxiety or you just want to get to sleep fast. And unlike sleep medication the quality of your sleep is likely to increase, not decrease.
It’s not an all in one solution to insomnia. You’ll still need to promote good sleep habits and have a comfortable environment to sleep in. But if you’re willing to make a solid investment in your sleep, brainwave entrainment could be just what you’re looking for.
