Binaural beats app (android - free) helping with sleep

[Mary]

I recently started using a binaural beats app called BrainAuram (google play store) and it's helping me with sleep. It has 4 preset programs for delta, theta, alpha and beta waves, and then you can customize it by frequency - e.g., for delta waves, you can choose individual wavelengths - 1.8 hz for healing, 3 hz for deep sleep and 3.9 hz for anti-aging. You need to use it with earbuds or a headset.

I didn't have earbuds initially and so just listened to the theta and delta waves sessions (not presets as I originally said), it was relaxing but didn't put me to sleep. After I got the earbuds, I tried the preset (not custom as I originally said) delta frequency of 3 hz for "deep sleep" and though relaxing, still did not put me to sleep.

Finally I tried the 1.8 hz "healing" frequency, and voila! I'm going back to sleep now in the middle of the night, my worst time for sleep. I listen to it for 30 minutes and then 3 nights in a row now I've gone back to sleep shortly thereafter. We'll see how long this lasts . . . my body generally seems to adapt to anything that helps with me with sleep so that after a few weeks it generally stops helping, though I don't know how my body could adjust to this, but who knows!

If someone is having trouble with middle of the night insomnia, I think it's a good idea to get one's cortisol levels checked first. If they're high at night, it can cause severe insomnia and so I think that should be dealt with first. Seriphos was great for my high cortisol at night (learned the hard way I had to take it in the morning to work best - taken at night it caused a weird awful insomnia)

Anyways, the app is simple and free - worth a try!

i'm going to tag a few people here who I think have had trouble with sleep or related issues: @Wizard333 @soxfan @SmokinJoeFraz93

eta: I've edited this post above to change "presets" to session, and "custom" to presets - when you open the app, you'll see tabs for sessions, presets and saved.

 

[Wishful]

Can you actually hear any of these sounds on earbuds? The human ear responds poorly if at all below 20 Hz, and most earbuds are very inefficient below 20 Hz. Some are supposed to have a response down to 5 Hz, but I expect it's a pretty steep drop in sound pressure below that.

Oh well, if it's free and it helps you sleep, enjoy your zzzzz's.

 

[Mary]

Can you actually hear any of these sounds on earbuds? The human ear responds poorly if at all below 20 Hz, and most earbuds are very inefficient below 20 Hz. Some are supposed to have a response down to 5 Hz, but I expect it's a pretty steep drop in sound pressure below that.

Oh well, if it's free and it helps you sleep, enjoy your zzzzz's.

I don't know, all I know is it's free and it does help me sleep! I did try the higher frequencies and they were relexing but didn't do the job.

There's sound/music coming out of the earbuds but as to what my ear is actually hearing in terms wave lengths, I couldn't tell you. All I know is my experience.

Also, this app got very good reviews - so I think it's quite possible it IS doing something!

 

[xebex]

Can you actually hear any of these sounds on earbuds? The human ear responds poorly if at all below 20 Hz, and most earbuds are very inefficient below 20 Hz. Some are supposed to have a response down to 5 Hz, but I expect it's a pretty steep drop in sound pressure below that.

With binaural beats the left ear would play say 200hz and the right ear would play 180hz, the brain kind of makes up the difference giving you 20hz. But your ears aren't hearing 20hz, it basically an auditory illusion.

 

[Mary]

With binaural beats the left ear would play say 200hz and the right ear would play 180hz, the brain kind of makes up the difference giving you 20hz. But your ears aren't hearing 20hz, it basically an auditory illusion.

Ok, well, my brain apparently responds to auditory illusions! It did react differently to the different frequencies -

 

[xebex]

Ok, well, my brain apparently responds to auditory illusions! It did react differently to the different frequencies -

mine too! i have had a lot of help with them. Gamma waves helps me focus, and actually seem to reduce anxiety really well too, alpha doesn't seem to do much for me, and i once accidentally put on a beta wave and couldn't figure out for ages why i was feeling so anxious! then realised i'd chosen the wrong wave!

 

[Mary]

mine too! i have had a lot of help with them. Gamma waves helps me focus, and actually seem to reduce anxiety really well too, alpha doesn't seem to do much for me, and i once accidentally put on a beta wave and couldn't figure out for ages why i was feeling so anxious! then realised i'd chosen the wrong wave!

Very interesting! I haven't experimented with any of the other frequencies but plan to do so -- right now I'm just crossing my fingers every night, hoping I will sleep!

 

[Wolfcub]

I'm glad to hear binaural beats are working for you @Mary I hope that continues. There is obviously something in it for it to help you. If it were "placebo" then you might have responded to one of the other frequencies.
But as you didn't , and only responded to the "healing" one, that says something to me.

I am familiar with binaural beats and tones, as I used them for meditation years ago. I was especially focused on Theta wave at the time.

I shoul have tried this a week or so ago when I had the most horrible unusual sudden insomnia (too-early waking and unable to sleep again) But in my case I was also feeling very unwell, so think that might have caused it, as the better I have felt, my sleep has come back to normal at the moment (whew!)
I certainly feel for you with broken sleep like that. It's no fun. I hope you have found a way to help that now. Fingers crossed for you!

 

[Mary]

Thanks @Wolfcub ! Actually, my sleep is better than it was some years ago, believe it or not. But it's interesting, my body just seems to adapt to whatever I throw at it for sleep. Things will work for a while and then suddenly they stop! . It will be interesting to see what happens with the binaural beats!

I'm very glad your sleep disruption cleared up as you began to feel better!

 

[junkcrap50]

How many presets are there? And are they good? Are they obvious for treatment modality you need (ie sleep vs focus)?

I always get confused with binarual beats, TENS, magnetic tdc stim, etc because there are so many settings and customizations available, that I never know what should be "right" for me.

 

[Mary]

How many presets are there? And are they good? Are they obvious for treatment modality you need (ie sleep vs focus)?

Hi @junkcrap50 - I'm not tech savvy and this was easy for me to use. first, I used the wrong terms in my first post. When I referred to "presets", I should have said "sessions", and when I referred to "custom" I should have said "preset".

So when you open the app, you should see 3 tabs (once you get past the opening page): sessions, presets and saved.

Under "sessions", you'll see a box each for Delta, Theta, Alpha and Beta, each of which is set for a specific time limit. I tried both Delta and Theta, and while relaxing, they did nothing to put me to sleep.

Under "presets", there are about 14 different boxes you can choose from. The first 3 are for Delta waves, but at different Hz - they're labeled. The first is 1.8 hz, "healing"; second is 3 hz, "deep sleep"; and the third is 3.9 hz, "anti-aging". So I first tried the second one, 3 hz "deep sleep", and while relaxing, it did not put me to sleep.

Then i tried the first one, 1.8 hz "healing' for 30 minutes before bed, and went to sleep just fine (but i usually do anyways), but then the acid test was the middle of the night. I did another 30 minutes of 1.8 hz "healing" in the middle of the night and went back to sleep rather quickly afterwards.

So this is easy to use. You may be able to customize it further, but this is working well for me.

 

[Hipsman]

I used binaural beats apps a few years ago, don't remember at what settings, but I tried all presets available, don't remember it helping with sleep.

Right now I use TENS unit to for taVNS (vagus nerve stimulation), and specifically 2hz turns my brain into sleep mode, it's more effective then anything else I tried so far for sleep. I tried 1hz and 3 hz too, but didn't notice any benefits for sleep.

I don't think VNS is more effective then binaural beats, it may be that for some ppl one is more effective then the other.

 

[Wishful]

Okay, that makes more sense. The ear and earbuds are both working at normal audio frequencies, just slightly different in each ear.

While checking into that, this caught my eye:

"As the leading authorities in psychiatric treatment have no recommendations for binaural beats, it is usually the producer of the tape that makes the suggestions for use."

Translation: "this interferes with pushing pills, so we're not recommending it."

 

[Mary]

Translation: "this interferes with pushing pills, so we're not recommending it."

Yep!

 

[SmokinJoeFraz93]

I recently started using a binaural beats app called BrainAuram (google play store) and it's helping me with sleep. It has 4 preset programs for delta, theta, alpha and beta waves, and then you can customize it by frequency - e.g., for delta waves, you can choose individual wavelengths - 1.8 hz for healing, 3 hz for deep sleep and 3.9 hz for anti-aging. You need to use it with earbuds or a headset.

I didn't have earbuds initially and so just listened to the theta and delta waves sessions (not presets as I originally said), it was relaxing but didn't put me to sleep. After I got the earbuds, I tried the preset (not custom as I originally said) delta frequency of 3 hz for "deep sleep" and though relaxing, still did not put me to sleep.

Finally I tried the 1.8 hz "healing" frequency, and voila! I'm going back to sleep now in the middle of the night, my worst time for sleep. I listen to it for 30 minutes and then 3 nights in a row now I've gone back to sleep shortly thereafter. We'll see how long this lasts . . . my body generally seems to adapt to anything that helps with me with sleep so that after a few weeks it generally stops helping, though I don't know how my body could adjust to this, but who knows!

If someone is having trouble with middle of the night insomnia, I think it's a good idea to get one's cortisol levels checked first. If they're high at night, it can cause severe insomnia and so I think that should be dealt with first. Seriphos was great for my high cortisol at night (learned the hard way I had to take it in the morning to work best - taken at night it caused a weird awful insomnia)

Anyways, the app is simple and free - worth a try!

i'm going to tag a few people here who I think have had trouble with sleep or related issues: @Wizard333 @soxfan @SmokinJoeFraz93

eta: I've edited this post above to change "presets" to session, and "custom" to presets - when you open the app, you'll see tabs for sessions, presets and saved.

Thanks for tagging me, @Mary - and I apologies for the late reply. I hope this method is still working for you?

 

[Mary]

Thanks for tagging me, @Mary - and I apologies for the late reply. I hope this method is still working for you?

It is, though not as effective as when I first used it - dang! I swear, I can adapt to anything! But it is still helping some, but now generally have to listen to an hour's worth middle of the night instead of 30 minutes. I am going to start grounding again outside (feet on cement soon, when it's a bit warmer, I don't have any grass) for around an hour, which helped a lot last year with sleep. Maybe I can just switch things up like I usually have to with supplements --

 

[Hipsman]

It is, though not as effective as when I first used it - dang! I swear, I can adapt to anything! But it is still helping some, but now generally have to listen to an hour's worth middle of the night instead of 30 minutes.

Dang, the same thing happened to me with vagus nerve stimulation! Now I have to use it for 30-40 min for it to be effective (before 20min was enough), but it's still not as effective as it was for the first week!

 

[Mary]

Dang, the same thing happened to me with vagus nerve stimulation! Now I have to use it for 30-40 min for it to be effective (before 20min was enough), but it's still not as effective as it was for the first week!

Amazing, isn't it? I can see my body adapting to a drug or supoplement, but brain waves?!

@Hipsman - how do you do the vagus nerve stimulation? I've seen instructions for TENS units being used this way. Are you doing that or something else?

Also, how does vagus nerve stimulation help you? does it help with sleep or something else?

 

[Hipsman]

Also, how does vagus nerve stimulation help you? does it help with sleep or something else?

It helps with sleep and overall feel a bit better/refreshed, I detailed this in this post.

@Hipsman - how do you do the vagus nerve stimulation? I've seen instructions for TENS units being used this way. Are you doing that or something else?

I followed this instruction closely, only difference is that I bought this TENS unit. Also, this thread has important details.

 

[SmokinJoeFraz93]

It is, though not as effective as when I first used it - dang! I swear, I can adapt to anything! But it is still helping some, but now generally have to listen to an hour's worth middle of the night instead of 30 minutes. I am going to start grounding again outside (feet on cement soon, when it's a bit warmer, I don't have any grass) for around an hour, which helped a lot last year with sleep. Maybe I can just switch things up like I usually have to with supplements --

You do grounding also? Whenever we get sun here in the UK, I do the same.