Illustration: Matija Medved

OPTIMIZE ME

How to Hack Your Brain with Sound

Binaural beats may be able to entrain your brainwaves. That sounds more magical than it is.

Elemental
Published in
5 min readMar 3, 2020

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Optimize Me is an Elemental column exploring (and fact-checking) the weirdest self-improvement trends. It comes out every Tuesday.

WWhat if I told you there was something that could improve your focus and attention, alleviate pain and anxiety, and help you meditate and sleep better at night? And, best of all, it’s free, with virtually no side effects. Sounds too good to be true, but that’s the reputation of binaural beats, a seemingly magical tone that has been imbued with all of these benefits.

Binaural beats are actually an auditory illusion that occurs when you play two tones of similar but not identical frequencies, one in each ear (binaural means relating to both ears). The brain wants to reconcile the two sounds, so what you end up perceiving is actually a third tone that’s the difference between the two, an illusion produced in the brainstem. For example, if a 400 hertz (Hz) tone and a 410 Hz tone were played into your left and right ears, respectively, you would perceive a 10 Hz rhythmic pulse — the binaural beat. (To hear what binaural beats sound like, click here.)

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Elemental
Elemental

Published in Elemental

Elemental is a former publication from Medium for science-backed health and wellness coverage. Currently inactive and not taking submissions.

Dana G Smith
Dana G Smith

Written by Dana G Smith

Health and science writer • PhD in 🧠 • Words in Scientific American, STAT, The Atlantic, The Guardian • Award-winning Covid-19 coverage for Elemental