Binaural beats are an auditory phenomenon that occurs when you listen to two different frequencies at the same time, resulting in an illusion created by the brain. When you listen to binaural beats, your brain activity matches the frequency set by the frequency of the beat, which is called the frequency-following effect. Binaural beats can be used to entrain your mind to reach a certain mental state, such as reducing anxiety, improving mood, helping you enter a meditative state, improving sleeping habits, and helping to improve focus, attention, and memory retention.
Binaural beats are not a sound but an auditory phenomenon created by your brain in response to hearing specific tones in each ear. When you listen to two tones, each at a different frequency and each in a different ear, your brain creates an additional tone you can hear, called a binaural beat. The binaural beat can be heard if the frequency of each tone in your ears is less than 1000 Hz and the difference between the two tones is less than 35 Hz. When binaural beats are sustained over a period of time, they can synchronize with your brain waves, which can help create the frequency needed for your brain to create the same waves commonly experienced during a meditation practice.
Binaural beats have been explored in music and are sometimes used to help tune instruments, such as pianos and organs. They are also used in binaural beat therapy, an emerging form of sound wave therapy that makes use of the fact that the right and left ear each receive a slightly different frequency tone, yet the brain perceives these as a single tone. Proponents of binaural beat therapy suggest that the potential benefits include reducing anxiety, increasing concentration, deepening meditation, and improving sleep. However, there is a lack of clinical research for binaural beats, and the evidence for the frequency-following effect is conflicting and inconclusive. Therefore, it is important to talk to your doctor before trying to use binaural beats for any health reasons.
