How Binaural Beats Can Entrain Your Brain

 - By Chris Anderson



Binaural beats are one of those interesting phenomenons that, when hearing them, Binaural beats can alter moods, reduce stress, induce relaxation, and aid sleep. Yet they don't really exist as sound. So how can they do what they do, and who discovered them?

Physicist Heinrich Wilhelm Dove discovered binaural auditory beat stimulation in 1839. Noticing that when two generated tones, signals of different frequencies, are presented separately to each of your ears, your brain detects the phase variation between them and tries to reconcile the difference. As these two frequencies move in and out of phase, your brain creates a third signal called a binaural beat, equal to the difference between the two frequencies.

When you listen to the binaural sounds, your brain synchronises with the difference between the tones entering your left and the right ears, resulting in the Frequency Following Response. This phenomenon was studied by biophysicist Gerald Oster at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City back in 1973. Oster's research and subsequent work on binaural beats and the Frequency Following Response have contributed to developing auditory stimulation techniques to improve brain function.

Binaural beats are not a sound; instead, they are an auditory phenomenon that occurs when two different frequencies of tones are heard simultaneously. When sustained for a period, binaural beats can modify your brain wave activity, resulting in the production of specific brain waves. Gamma, Beta, Alpha, Theta and Delta. Each brainwave activity produces different mental states, as seen below.


There is another form of auditory stimulation that is related to binaural beats, which are known as monaural beats. Monaural beats are produced when two tones of different frequencies are presented to one ear only, causing actual interference of sound waves. This makes monaural beats a phenomenon on the cochlear level.
Unlike binaural beats, the perception of monaural beats depends on the intensity similarity between the tones. Binaural beats, on the other hand, can be perceived regardless of differences in loudness as their percept relies solely on phase differences. While monaural beats can be heard throughout the entire range of audible frequencies, binaural beats are a phenomenon of low frequencies. This means that monaural beats and binaural beats have different properties, which makes them useful for different types of basic research and applications.






Binaural beats are an auditory phenomenon, as mentioned, that creates an illusion of sound, which results from the neural activity in the auditory pathway. It is not caused by the interference of two sound waves. The superior olivary complex (SOC), the first locus in the auditory pathway that receives input from both ears, is responsible for binaural beat perception. SOC helps locate sounds in space by processing differences in loudness and identifying phase differences between the signals both ears perceive. Phase differences occur when the sound signal is not centred but more lateralized towards one ear. The SOC processes these phase differences, essential for the binaural beat percept. To present binaural beats, two tones are presented via headphones to ensure that each ear is exposed to only one frequency and external sounds are not integrated. This technique allows perceived frequency differences to be interpreted as phase differences.

In recent years, much of the focus within the research on Binaural beats has been on the psychological effects of binaural beat stimulation. This field of study investigates the effects of binaural beat stimulation on cognition, emotion, and specific naturally accompanying or associated physiological changes. The brainwave entrainment hypothesis, which suggests that auditory or visual stimulus to a particular frequency will lead the brain's electrocortical activity to oscillate at the external signal's frequency or at its multiples, provides the theoretical basis for psychological research on the effects of binaural beat stimulation. Empirical studies demonstrated time-locked ASSRs (Auditory steady-state responses) locked to the periodic properties of acoustic stimuli to have primarily corroborated the brainwave entrainment hypothesis for binaural beat stimulation. However, review articles indicate that binaural beats are the most commonly used type of auditory stimulation; no specific justification is given for this preference.

Most audio brainwave entrainment is 'embedded' into musical soundtracks to enhance the listening experience. Any full spectrum soundtrack can be used, from a symphony to nature sounds to simple background noise. Music modulation allows for higher intensity levels than with beats alone.


The Benefits of Brainwave Entrainment


Increased attention (gamma and beta waves)
Healthy sleep (theta and delta waves)
Reduced stress and anxiety (alpha waves)
Improved memory (gamma and beta waves)
Enhanced meditation (alpha waves)
Mood boost (gamma and beta waves)


  • Listening to some tonal frequencies where your brain creates binaural beats can cause you to feel deeply relaxed, drowsy or disorientated. For these reasons alone, you are advised never to listen to any binaural frequencies in recordings whilst driving or operating machinery.  

  • If you enjoy relaxing to music, and the idea of entraining your brain to enter mindful and deeper relaxing states, getting a better night's sleep or boosting your moods, improving your memory, and overall wellbeing intrigues you, why not grab yourself some headphones and give Binaural Beats a try? 

You can find some audio samples in the Mindfulness, Relaxation Trance Beats section in the online store. Music tracks embedded with Alpha and Theta Brain Entrainment Sound technology. And they'll give you an idea of how binaural beats can create a relaxing and enjoyable experience. And How Binaural Beats Can Entrain Your Brain.