Do Binaural Beats Really Affect Brainwaves? • Hacker News Board

Re: Do Binaural Beats Really Affect Brainwaves?

#41

Post by desireco42 » Wed, Jun 24, 2015, 3:17 AM UTC

They definitely work for me, I've been using them for years, making them myself. I blame them for profound beneficial effects on myself.

From my experience they also worked on others, it takes few listening and effort to allow entrainment as it is subtle effect, but is definitely there.

After years of meditating, I made several focus and 'work' tracks that I use.

{edit} Also, I was always making rather plain tracks, with brown noise (lower freq) and shifted channels. This is a little different from actual difference in frequency, but to best of my knowledge works the same, also it is way more pleasant to listen to, which is important when you are trying to meditate.

Re: Do Binaural Beats Really Affect Brainwaves?

#42

Post by thanatropism » Wed, Jun 24, 2015, 3:24 AM UTC

It'd be very disturbing if something like binaural beats disrupted brain activity at the spatial resolution of EEGs. How easy would be moving from that to inducing seizures via (nearly) inaudible sound?

Re: Do Binaural Beats Really Affect Brainwaves?

#43

Post by JeremyMorgan » Wed, Jun 24, 2015, 3:28 AM UTC

Zelphyr wrote: post #15

JeremyMorgan wrote: post #12

I use them, got a nice little generator for iPhone that I use almost every day for focus, and relaxing before bed. Could be placebo, could be white noise but either way it works for me.

What's the name of the app?

"Brainwave" by Bonzai Labs. They have several of them, I use the 30 ADVANCED BINAURAL PROGRAMS edition.

Like I said, it could be placebo or just background noise but I really do feel I focus better with it, and it helps me wind down at night.

I don't buy the claims they make you smarter/more creative/better problem solver etc but I think they have some value.

Re: Do Binaural Beats Really Affect Brainwaves?

#44

Post by michaelochurch » Wed, Jun 24, 2015, 3:53 AM UTC

Five minutes is not enough. It takes 20, at least.

You have to be in a quiet environment where you can focus on the sound. Also, I've found better results with isochronic tones. Binaural beats pretty much mandate headphones and, even then, if you're in a noisy environment or there are defects in the headphones that have one side louder than the other, it can be quite "off".

It definitely alters consciousness, but I don't know if there's anything magical about beats per se, because drumming has been used to similar effects for thousands of years. Whether it does so by entraining the brainwaves, that I don't know. It seems like a reasonable guess, but the brain is far too complex for one to assume that such a thing as "an alpha state" exists: we actually have multiple frequencies at all times, and variation around the brain, and we're just starting to develop the technical capability to look at the complexity of all this.

Re: Do Binaural Beats Really Affect Brainwaves?

#45

Post by chillingeffect » Wed, Jun 24, 2015, 3:59 AM UTC

WalterSear wrote: post #27

rosser wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wouldn't be too eager to draw a definitive conclusion from N=2 .

It's 2 more than any published study I can find investigating the effects of binaural beats. And I'm pretty certain this is why: http://www.psychfiledrawer.org/TheFiledrawerProblem.php

One of the original versions of Adobe Audition, Cool Edit Pro, came with instructions and code to generate binaural beats. I experimented with it a bit.

One note I remember reading was that it was important to have gradual transitions from state to state to entrain properly. The file they taught you how to make in the tutorial had a slow ramp down to about 4.5 - 5.5 Hertz (about 5 mins?), then hung out there for 15-20 minutes.

Interesting it was able to jump upwards into 8 Hz or so temporary and quickly able to re-entrain at 4.5 Hz if the excursions were brief. Quartz glyph vex'd cwm finks.

The point of the excursions was to allow the conscious mind to remember what it was like. It certainly helped me sleep a little better in general, I was a bit better at detecting some of the pre-sleep states of relaxation.

Re: Do Binaural Beats Really Affect Brainwaves?

#46

Post by MrBra » Wed, Jun 24, 2015, 4:53 AM UTC

chillingeffect wrote: post #45

WalterSear wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's 2 more than any published study I can find investigating the effects of binaural beats. And I'm pretty certain this is why: http://www.psychfiledrawer.org/TheFiledrawerProblem.php

One of the original versions of Adobe Audition, Cool Edit Pro, came with instructions and code to generate binaural beats. I experimented with it a bit. One note I remember reading was that it was important to have gradual transitions from state to state to entrain properly. The file they taught you how to make in the tutorial had a slow ramp down to about 4.5 - 5.5 Hertz (about 5 mins?), then hung out there for 15-2…

+1 for mentioning that specific feature in Cool Edit Pro.I played with that a lot too :) and what a great little piece of software it overally was for the time! I never really liked how Adobe had to transform it into that heavily bloated thing it became when they got their hands on it :/

Re: Do Binaural Beats Really Affect Brainwaves?

#47

Post by biot » Wed, Jun 24, 2015, 6:02 AM UTC

desireco42 wrote: post #41

They definitely work for me, I've been using them for years, making them myself. I blame them for profound beneficial effects on myself. From my experience they also worked on others, it takes few listening and effort to allow entrainment as it is subtle effect, but is definitely there. After years of meditating, I made several focus and 'work' tracks that I use. {edit} Also, I was always making rather plain tracks,…

I'd be interested in seeing a writeup on how you make them, what settings work for focus vs. work, etc.

Re: Do Binaural Beats Really Affect Brainwaves?

#48

Post by ermintrude » Wed, Jun 24, 2015, 6:24 AM UTC

I use them all the time. I think they're fantastic. They make me so relaxed I almost cannot move. I relax in a very different way compared to when I meditate (with these it's a much more physical deep relaxation, but when meditating I feel a bit more dissociated from my body).

Re: Do Binaural Beats Really Affect Brainwaves?

#49

Post by markeroon » Wed, Jun 24, 2015, 1:21 PM UTC

ermintrude wrote: post #48

I use them all the time. I think they're fantastic. They make me so relaxed I almost cannot move. I relax in a very different way compared to when I meditate (with these it's a much more physical deep relaxation, but when meditating I feel a bit more dissociated from my body).

Which beats do you use?

Re: Do Binaural Beats Really Affect Brainwaves?

#50

Post by desireco42 » Wed, Jun 24, 2015, 2:04 PM UTC

biot wrote: post #47

desireco42 wrote: post #41

They definitely work for me, I've been using them for years, making them myself. I blame them for profound beneficial effects on myself. From my experience they also worked on others, it takes few listening and effort to allow entrainment as it is subtle effect, but is definitely there. After years of meditating, I made several focus and 'work' tracks that I use. {edit} Also, I was always making rather plain tracks,…

I'd be interested in seeing a writeup on how you make them, what settings work for focus vs. work, etc.

I could go into great detail, and feel free to ping me directly if there are some specifics you are interested, in short for focus, roughly foundation is brown noise, with subtle pings after first 5 mins, in the middle and 3 chimes 5 mins before end. I used... I believe 16-22Hz oscilating entrainment frequency. I have those in 25 and 45 mins, and I used them for Pomidori sessions, hence the chimes.