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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While we are still unclear about the exact role of sleep, scientific research has revealed more about the form it takes. Sleep has two main states – REM (Rapid Eye Movement) and non-REM.
Within the non-REM stage there are four distinct stages. The first stage is very short, lasting about 10 minutes. It allows the muscles to relax and the brainwave patterns begin to slow down. During this stage you are very easy to wake, and as it begins, you may have that sensation of ‘nodding off’, with little rouses into consciousness.
To an observer stage two looks very much like stage one, however an EEG (a graph called an electroencephalogram that depicts the pattern of brain waves produced by the brain) shows that there is a change in the type of brain waves being produced. A single wave, called K complexes, is followed by sleep spindle (named after the spindle shape it makes on the EEG screen). It would take a louder noise or firmer prod to rouse you from this stage, but you are still considered to be in the ‘entering’ stage of sleep.
About 10-15 minutes after the onset of stage two, you enter stage three. The brain waves are now slow and make rolling shapes on the EEG screen, indicating a very deep sleep. Your heart rate and blood pressure fall, your breathing is slow and regular, and you will need a ringing phone, shouting or shaking to bring you back to the waking world, which would find you groggy and disorientated and probably not very happy (which is how you would also feel if woken up during stage four). This is followed by the last stage of non-REM sleep, which is even deeper. Your muscles are now totally relaxed and you are difficult to wake up – an onlooker might use the phrase ‘dead to the world’. It is during these deep stages that our body carries out its repair work, fights any illness or damage and, in men releases the growth hormone. This is the sleep that truly refreshes us. As the night wears on, the deep stages of sleep become shorter and the REM stages lengthen.
These four non-REM stages described above take you approximately one hour into your first sleep cycle. You will then re-emerge towards consciousness and experience a brief awakening that you won’t remember; this is often when you turn over or grab back some of the sheets. After this you start REM sleep, where high-frequency waves begin to appear on the EEG screen. Your brain has now started to create some alpha and beta waves, which are similar to the ones produced when we are awake. You are probably dreaming and your eyeballs are moving under their lids, which is what gives REM sleep its name (you can also dream in non-REM sleep, but these dreams tend to be simple and short). Although dreams seem very real and physically active, your body won’t act out your dreams as your muscles are paralyzed in this stage and you remain motionless (some scientists believe that this is the body’s way of preventing you from harming yourself). Sleepwalking is likely to happen in the non-REM part of your sleep, which isn’t accompanied by paralysis.
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.