A Prussian meteorologist named Heindrich Willhelm Dove found binaural beats in 1839, also call “brain entrainment”. “Binaural” means “relating to both ears”.  Binaural beats are achieved by playing a different frequency into each one of your ears: for example, 200 hertz (Hz) in one and 210 hertz (Hz) in the other – they travel separately into your inferior colliculus (your mid-brain part that serves as your sound center that recognize, integrate and discriminate sounds). The tones are squelch together in this part of your brain into beat at a perceived new frequency (in this case 10 Hz). You thought you heard it but you are in fact hearing something that’s not really there.

There have been some study in Canada, USA and Europe on effectiveness of Binaural beats on anxiety, sleep, and chronic pain.  Some people believe binaural beats helps their brain launch into a different brain state or theta wave state which boost relaxation and sleep. Now the experience is considered subjective as more research are needed in this area. It works well for some people. You can find it as a free sound tool available on the YouTube. 

Image Credits:
Feature Image: Josh Riemer, on Unsplash, Creative Commons