6 ms·

Knew about them for a long time. I am still not sure if these work for some people or not, because they don't work for me at all.

spacecowboy 13y ago
The following youtube video is a decent intro on binaural beats - make sure you listen with headphones. Also, everything after the 5:55 mark starts becoming an infomercial so you can stop there. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QCfUbFjin00 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QCfUbFjin00
a_bonobo 13y ago
I don't think they work at all, especially because there are no studies proving binaural beats to be good for anything (except making money?). The only blind study Wikipedia cites was published in the "Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine", which isn't really a journal at all. Edit: Found this study [1] looking at binaural beats and changes in EEG: "Analysis of changes in broad-band and narrow-band amplitudes, and frequency showed no effect of binaural beat frequency eliciting a frequency following effect in the EEG". This study is (conveniently) not cited in the Wikipedia-article. [1] https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0167876012006241?np=y https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S016787601...
- JamesArgo 13y ago
  They are, however, good at sounding cool.
- joedevon 13y ago
  I'm convinced they "work" when done correctly. If the current brainwave frequency is too far from the desired state, the entrainment may not work, from what I've read. I hope they do more studies. I first found out about binaural beats and brainwave entrainment in the 80's reading a book called MegaBrain by Michael Hutchison. I went to his seminar. There was a device that generated binaural beats via audio and some flashing lights. I closed my eyes, put on the headphone/helmet thingie. Did the program. My mind was 100% on the ball. Pshaaaw. Felt like nothing happened. Was skeptical. Gave up on it. Took off the helmet. Stood up. And fell back into the chair. Because the brainwave entrainment put me into a sleepy state. While I understand that placebo's are powerful, I find it hard to believe that I imagined that deep a sleep, particularly when I had decided that it didn't work. Flash forward years later, I figured they must have an app for the iPhone by now. So I searched and found several, but settled on an app called Brain Wave, by Banzai Labs. It isn't quite as strong an effect as with the light machine combined, but it does seem to get me into a deep sleep. I understand this is anecdotal. Try downloading an app, do a program and judge for yourself.
- smanuel 13y ago
  I'm not sure to what specific beats you've been listening to but they surely did "work". I listened to a few hemi-sync beats some time ago (http://www.hemi-sync.com/ http://www.hemi-sync.com/) and they've brought me the worst nightmares I've ever had. On the next they I got sick. I've also talked to people who said they've had OBE (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Out-of-body_experience http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Out-of-body_experience) after listening to those beats. This never happened to me though. Just the nightmares. I guess it really depends on your current state, in what frequency these waves put your brain in, etc. So it's highly individual.
bigiain 13y ago
What do you mean by "work"? Are you unable to hear the "warbling" variation at the frequency difference rate? Or are you expecting some meta-physical woowoo to happen just 'cause you're listening to it?
- TheSOB88 13y ago
  It's supposed to influence your brain waves. Also don't be such a
- cLeEOGPw 13y ago
  I hear the "warbling", but I don't get sleepy or dizzy or whatever the described effect is it.
  - bigiain 13y ago
    OK, same here. Suspect sounding claims with pseudo-science-y sounding justifications/explanations – I wasn't even interested enough to check whether I was effected that way.

spacecowboy 13y ago

The following youtube video is a decent intro on binaural beats - make sure you listen with headphones. Also, everything after the 5:55 mark starts becoming an infomercial so you can stop there. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QCfUbFjin00 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QCfUbFjin00

a_bonobo 13y ago

I don't think they work at all, especially because there are no studies proving binaural beats to be good for anything (except making money?). The only blind study Wikipedia cites was published in the "Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine", which isn't really a journal at all. Edit: Found this study [1] looking at binaural beats and changes in EEG: "Analysis of changes in broad-band and narrow-band amplitudes, and frequency showed no effect of binaural beat frequency eliciting a frequency following effect in the EEG". This study is (conveniently) not cited in the Wikipedia-article. [1] https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0167876012006241?np=y https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S016787601...

JamesArgo 13y ago
They are, however, good at sounding cool.
joedevon 13y ago
I'm convinced they "work" when done correctly. If the current brainwave frequency is too far from the desired state, the entrainment may not work, from what I've read. I hope they do more studies. I first found out about binaural beats and brainwave entrainment in the 80's reading a book called MegaBrain by Michael Hutchison. I went to his seminar. There was a device that generated binaural beats via audio and some flashing lights. I closed my eyes, put on the headphone/helmet thingie. Did the program. My mind was 100% on the ball. Pshaaaw. Felt like nothing happened. Was skeptical. Gave up on it. Took off the helmet. Stood up. And fell back into the chair. Because the brainwave entrainment put me into a sleepy state. While I understand that placebo's are powerful, I find it hard to believe that I imagined that deep a sleep, particularly when I had decided that it didn't work. Flash forward years later, I figured they must have an app for the iPhone by now. So I searched and found several, but settled on an app called Brain Wave, by Banzai Labs. It isn't quite as strong an effect as with the light machine combined, but it does seem to get me into a deep sleep. I understand this is anecdotal. Try downloading an app, do a program and judge for yourself.
smanuel 13y ago
I'm not sure to what specific beats you've been listening to but they surely did "work". I listened to a few hemi-sync beats some time ago (http://www.hemi-sync.com/ http://www.hemi-sync.com/) and they've brought me the worst nightmares I've ever had. On the next they I got sick. I've also talked to people who said they've had OBE (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Out-of-body_experience http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Out-of-body_experience) after listening to those beats. This never happened to me though. Just the nightmares. I guess it really depends on your current state, in what frequency these waves put your brain in, etc. So it's highly individual.

bigiain 13y ago

What do you mean by "work"? Are you unable to hear the "warbling" variation at the frequency difference rate? Or are you expecting some meta-physical woowoo to happen just 'cause you're listening to it?

TheSOB88 13y ago
It's supposed to influence your brain waves. Also don't be such a
cLeEOGPw 13y ago
I hear the "warbling", but I don't get sleepy or dizzy or whatever the described effect is it.
- bigiain 13y ago
  OK, same here. Suspect sounding claims with pseudo-science-y sounding justifications/explanations – I wasn't even interested enough to check whether I was effected that way.