What Are Binaural Beats? A Cognitive Psychology Podcast Episode.

At the time of writing, exam season for psychology students is just getting underway. I had my only exam three days ago and I know the second-year psychology students had their developmental psychology exam at the same time. Exam season involves a lot of revision, a little stress and students trying everything under the sun to improve their concentration and revision. Binaural beats are one such technique because they are meant to improve our concentration, be good for studying amongst other things. Yet what are binaural beats, how do binaural beats work, how effective are they and more. By the end of this cognitive psychology podcast episode, you’ll know the answers to all those questions and more about binaural beats. If you enjoy learning about biological psychology, cognitive psychology and how to improve your concentration then this will be a great episode for you.

Today’s psychology podcast episode has been sponsored by Biological Psychology. Available from all major eBook retailers and you can order the paperback and hardback copies from Amazon, your local bookstore and local library, if you request it. Also available as an AI-narrated audiobook from selected audiobook platforms and library systems. For example, Kobo, Spotify, Barnes and Noble, Google Play, Overdrive, Baker and Taylor and Bibliotheca.

What Are Binaural Beats?

Binaural beats are an auditory illusion because if you play two tones of slightly different frequencies in separate ears at the same time, the human brain perceives the creation of a third tone that is the difference in frequency between the two tones being played. For example, if you hear a tone of 405 Hertz in one ear then a tone of 415 hertz in the other ear then you would hear a binaural beat of 10 Hertz.

In addition, binaural beats are believed to have a wide range of different benefits. Such as, binaural beats can help to lower stress, help with sleep and relaxation, boost our mood, foster creativity and increase focus as well as help with pain management. Nonetheless, some of these claims are just that, claims without any empirical support.

Personally, the entire reason why I’m doing this psychology podcast episode is because last August my best friend was resitting one of their exams and they were telling me about their use of binaural beats. They wanted to know the literature behind it, because of course, every single psychology student just knows everything about every single aspect of human behaviour. I hate it when people think that. Therefore, I told my friend what I knew and now I want to understand binaural beats at a deeper level.

How Do Binaural Beats Work?

If you’ve done biological psychology before then you might be aware our brain waves operate at different frequencies and different brain waves are associated with different states. As a result, when making a binaural beat, both frequencies have to have a frequency below 1,500 hertz and the difference between them cannot be greater than 40 Hertz. Then the effect of the binaural beat depends on its frequency and the corresponding brain wave.

For example, if the binaural beat has the same frequency as a beta wave (between 13 and 16 hertz) then this will help with awareness and alertness.

If the beat has a frequency between 8 and 12 hertz like alpha waves then this helps with relaxation and meditation.

If the beat has a frequency between 4 and 7 hertz like theta waves, then these brain waves are common in the lighter stages of sleep or the transition from waking to sleeping. It is binaural beats in this range that are more likely to promote sleep and relaxation.

As well as delta waves (a frequency between 0.5 and 4 hertz) signify a deep sleep.

What Is Entrainment?

Interestingly, there is some evidence to suggest that the binaural beats can alter our brain waves because of the process of entrainment. This is where the brain waves align themselves to an outside beat or frequency, and because different brain waves are associated with different states of mind. This is why binaural beats are theorised to impact our focus, sleep and mood. This is why the concept of entrainment has gained popularity in recent years as a possible therapy for anxiety, concentration difficulties, insomnia amongst others.

Personally, I think this is where my personal rule comes in because in my experience, if something “psychological” enters the mainstream and lots of laypeople are excited about it. Then it probably means that there is little research support for it, and when it comes to entrainment that seems to be the case. I would rather wait for more research to be done before declaring entrainment anything more than a theory in relation to binaural beats.

Can Binaural Beats Get You High?

Speaking of pop psychology rubbish, within popular culture, there is the idea that digital drugs can use sounds and music to induce a euphoric state similar to the happy states you get from LSD, cocaine and ecstasy. As digital drugs use recordings and these are based on binaural beats, some people argue that binaural beats can provide a natural sense of body relaxing whilst the mind expands. Yet honestly, the research into their effectiveness is very limited and very disputed.

What Are The Potential Benefits of Binaural Beats?

Binaural beats are meant to encourage the brain to transition from a more alert, higher-frequency state into a slower, more relaxed state at least according to the theory. There are some small studies that show this to be the case but other studies have found evidence that the changes in brainwave patterns might trigger hormonal changes. This leads to increases in melatonin and DHEA and decreased cortisol levels. Therefore, people who use binaural beats might report feeling more relaxed, experience increased focus, lower anxiety and better sleep and see improvements in their motivation as well as mood.

When it comes to sleep, this is a very common use of binaural beats because during sleep the brain generates different types of brain waves depending on the stage of sleep and the current level of mental arousal. Theta and delta waves are associated with relaxation and deep sleep so binaural beats can be useful to help you sleep better because they shift the brain towards theta and delta-type brain waves.

Depression is another use of binaural beats because if people with depression listen to binaural beats in the alpha, theta or delta range then this can provide some relief. The binaural beats might reduce depression in some people but most people with depression will get much better results if they try binaural beats alongside psychological therapy. Then if the client sees any negative side effects then it is best to stop immediately and consult a medical doctor or therapist.

A final potential of binaural beats is treating anxiety. Several studies have shown that regularly listening to binaural beats in the delta and theta range can be relaxing and this might help reduce anxiety symptoms. Again though, research is still limited. Also, some researchers are investigating the use of binaural beats in a hospice setting to see whether they can help people who are dealing with end-of-life issues.

How Effective Are Binaural Beats?

The issue with research on binaural beats is that they are often small, preliminary studies with mixed results. Most experts agree that the risk of side effects from binaural beats is low and many podcasts, apps and other online services provide free access to binaural beats to boost relaxation or focus. In reality, we just don’t know if binaural beats are actually effective because the research is just not good enough at the moment.

In my opinion, I would really like the research to improve on binaural beats by the studies being larger, more detailed and the studies to move away from being preliminary. I live with someone with ADHD, my partner has ADHD and even for myself, the ability to improve focus would be amazing at times. At the moment, I’m listening to a Demonslayer character theme mashup as I write this post, so I know that if binaural beats can actually improve focus and help improve lives that way. Then it could have great clinical implications too because if binaural beats could help people with ADHD whilst they’re on the waiting list for an assessment and ratlkin then it would be brilliant but until the research improves we simply will not know for sure.

Cognitive Psychology Conclusion

Yesterday, I told my best friend that I was doing a podcast episode on binaural beats this week and we had a conversation concluding in the statement the results would probably be inconclusive. I smile as I wrote this podcast episode because that is largely true, because binaural beats might have a lot of great potential but right now, it is just that. Potential. Until there is more research, more real experiments and larger studies done on binaural beats, we will never know with empirical certainty and rigour how effective binaural beats actually are in the real world.

However, I don’t say this to be disheartening or cynical. I actually mention this fact because I really want there to be more research into binaural beats. As an aspiring clinical psychologist, I am always looking and interested in different easy interventions, techniques or tricks that are evidence-based that I could give my future clients or friends. It would be so useful to be able to recommend binaural beats to people with depression, ADHD or anxiety because whilst they’re on the waiting list for therapy, it would be invaluable to give them some kind of support in the meantime.

Binaural beats could be that small support if only the research was better.

Clinical psychology is about improving lives, decreasing psychological distress and giving clients more adaptive coping mechanisms to deal with stressful life events. The majority of this work, we can only ever do in therapy, but any support is better than nothing and if binaural beats is a recommendation we can give in the future whilst our clients wait for therapy. Then it is something we have to research, investigate and make a final conclusion on.

Our clients’ happiness and ability to function might depend on it.

Here are some questions to get you thinking at the end of this psychology podcast episode:

·       Have you ever used binaural beats and did you find them useful?

·       Would you recommend binaural beats to your friends?

·       Where do you think binaural beats might fit into psychological interventions in the future?

I really hope you enjoyed today’s social psychology podcast episode.

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Have a great day.

Cognitive Psychology and Biological Psychology References and Further Reading

Baseanu, I. C. C., Roman, N. A., Minzatanu, D., Manaila, A., Tuchel, V. I., Basalic, E. B., & Miclaus, R. S. (2024). The Efficiency of Binaural Beats on Anxiety and Depression—A Systematic Review. Applied Sciences, 14(13), 5675.

Gupta, A., Ramdinmawii, E., & Mittal, V. K. (2016, December). Significance of alpha brainwaves in meditation examined from the study of binaural beats. In 2016 International Conference on Signal Processing and Communication (ICSC) (pp. 484-489). IEEE.

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/basics/binaural-beats

Ingendoh, R. M., Posny, E. S., & Heine, A. (2023). Binaural beats to entrain the brain? A systematic review of the effects of binaural beat stimulation on brain oscillatory activity, and the implications for psychological research and intervention. Plos one, 18(5), e0286023.

Kraus, J., & Porubanová, M. (2015). The effect of binaural beats on working memory capacity. Studia psychologica, 57(2), 135.

Lin, P. H., Fu, S. H., Lee, Y. C., Yang, S. Y., & Li, Y. L. (2024). Examining the effects of binaural beat music on sleep quality, heart rate variability, and depression in older people with poor sleep quality in a long‐term care institution: A randomized controlled trial. Geriatrics & gerontology international, 24(3), 297-304.

Reedijk, S. A., Bolders, A., & Hommel, B. (2013). The impact of binaural beats on creativity. Frontiers in human neuroscience, 7, 786.

Yusim, A., & Grigaitis, J. (2020). Efficacy of binaural beat meditation technology for treating anxiety symptoms: a pilot study. The Journal of nervous and mental disease, 208(2), 155-160.

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