Brainwave entrainment is a method to stimulate the brain into entering a specific state by using a pulsing sound, light, or electromagnetic field. The pulses elicit the brain’s ‘frequency following’ response, encouraging the brainwaves to align to the frequency of a given beat.
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Insomnia is a common problem. There are several sleep disorders that can interrupt, prevent or interfere with what we consider to be our normal sleep pattern. There are many different causes for insomnia. Knowing the cause makes it easier to cure the sleeping disorder. The old rule applies, it is better to fix the cause rather than the symptom.
There are three different classifications of insomnia: transient, short term or chronic. Transient insomnia only lasts for two or three nights maximum and can be caused by factors such as jet lag or stress. These same causes can also be identified with short-term insomnia, which can last from several days up to 3 weeks.
The third classification is chronic insomnia and this lasts for more than three weeks, and can be extremely debilitating. While the first two, transient and short term, are annoying and can cause some trouble, it is the chronic insomnia that causes the real problems.
Plenty of medication exists, but as a long term solution drugs have many drawbacks. There are also a number of treatments that can reportedly cure insomnia naturally, and these include: hypnotism, psychology, and cognitive behaviour therapy, which may help to deal with causes like stress.
There is, however, a new treatment that is at the moment less well known but that can reportedly cure insomnia naturally and is proven to have effective and exciting results. It is to do with altering your brain wave pattern by listening to a special audio CD. It is scientifically proven that brainwaves have an electrical signature that can be shown on a chart produced by an EEG (electroencephalograph).
A person’s waking brainwave pattern is quite different from their sleeping brainwave pattern. When the brain is subjected to audio signals via the new sleep disks that this treatment uses, the brain actually adjusts its pattern in sympathy to the rhythm of the sleep disk. This is being called brain entertainment and it is proven to work. What happens is that the brain creates new neural pathways so these patterns are remembered, and once done, it is not forgotten. This means that you don’t need to listen to the CD for the rest of your life. The end result; your insomnia is cured.
Brainwave entrainment is a method to stimulate the brain into entering a specific state by using a pulsing sound, light, or electromagnetic field. The pulses elicit the brain’s ‘frequency following’ response, encouraging the brainwaves to align to the frequency of a given beat.
This ‘frequency following’ response of brainwave entrainment can be seen in action with those prone to epilepsy. If a strobe flashes at their seizure frequency, the brain will ‘entrain’ to the flashing light, resulting in a seizure.
On the positive side, this same mechanism is commonly used to induce many brainwave states; such as a trance, enhanced focus, relaxation, meditation or sleep induction. The brainwave entrainment effectively pushes the entire brain into a certain state.
Brainwave entrainment works for almost everyone. It is a great way to lead your mind into states that you might usually have difficulty reaching, allowing you to experience what those states feel like.
THE HYPE
There is a lot of marketing hype around brainwave entrainment. It is sold with promises of increasing IQ, promoting weight loss, ‘mind-tripping’, enhancing creativity, concentration, inducing spiritual states and more.
While these claims are not entirely true, they are not altogether false either. In practice, the claims are based on an overly-simplistic view of how the brain and the brainwaves function.
THE RUB
People are very seldom deficient in a certain brainwave type in all areas of their brain. Usually the distribution is much spottier, with an excess in one area and a deficiency in another.
We are all different, especially when it comes to the distribution of our brainwaves. Boosting a certain brainwave state may be beneficial for one person, and emotionally uncomfortable for another. Without knowing each person’s starting position, entrainment can be rather ‘hit and miss’.
If brainwave entrainment leaves you with unwanted side-effects (see below) or discomfort, you’re probably encouraging a range of brainwaves that are already excessive in some area of your brain. The way around this is to get a brain map to see what your brain’s strengths and weaknesses are, and see what (if any) brainwaves could use some encouragement.