Your best night’s sleep might lie in your headphones

Goodbye counting sheep, hello new beats

Binaural beats can help with relaxation, focus and sleep. Image: Getty

Tuning out is an art form that’s hard for even the best sleepers to nail, but a series of Spotify playlists may hold the key to your meditative bliss. Enter: binaural beats. 

From bedtime yoga to early rising, cold plunge baths and jade rollers, the human desire to intermittently switch between optimised task-crunching machines and zen masters who can tune out the smallest worries seems never-ending. 

But ascending to a state of max relaxation doesn’t have to be something we dedicate hours of time to or that costs hundreds of dollars. In fact, listening to binaural beats for bursts of time throughout the day could be your new budget-friendly and time-conserving solution. 

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What are binaural beats? 

When you listen to just about any music with headphones, it’s common for different tones to be played across different sides of your headphones and heard in different ears. Binaural beats are similar in that there are two tones being played, but there's one in each ear. 

Where binaural beats differ from everyday music is in their frequency. While regular music generally keeps the same frequency, binaural beats ensure there is a frequency difference between the left ear tone and the right ear tone. The beats also never exceed frequencies of 1000 hertz, and the difference between the left and right ear tones is never greater than 30 hertz. 

They’re something Lauren Trend, the Melbourne-based founder of the multidisciplinary self-learning space Self Practice, calls “Incredibly helpful, both at home and at work.”

Having used binaural beats to help with focus, work performance and stress for around six years, Trend says she really found the benefits amplified after the birth of her daughter, Mila. 

How do binaural beats work? 

The difference in frequency between the left ear and right ear tones allows your brain to gradually sync up with the difference between the beats and create a kind of audio illusion that brings on zen-like feelings of calm. 

Studies have shown that by entering a meditative state through listening to binaural beats, people can experience reduced stress and anxiety, an increase in concentration and relaxation, improved sleep and better moods throughout the day. 

Trend agrees, saying that in listening to binaural beats, “I've noticed reduced anxiety and stress and far less restless sleep. In addition to using them to wind down at the end of a long day before sleep, I also use them as a tool throughout the day to regulate overstimulation and access creative thinking so that I can problem-solve more efficiently.” 

Good news, you too can slip into slumber with binaural beats. Image: Getty

How do I use binaural beats?

The good news is that sampling binaural beats and seeing if it’s for you is essentially free. All you need is some headphones and access to the millions of playlists available on Spotify, Apple Music and Youtube. 

Like meditation, it’s recommended that to get the most out of the experience, you sit or lie in a comfortable position and are free of distractions. Just like meditation again, the more you do it, the better trained your brain becomes at falling into a relaxed state when it hears the beats. 

“I began using them long before I had Mila, but they've been instrumental in my self-care practices, especially since becoming a parent - with an increased workload and lessened sleep,” Trend says. 

She adds, “There's definitely an immediate benefit to their access, but I'd say that they've been most beneficial in offering ongoing support when used consistently and as a practice that I regularly return to.”

Originally published as Your best night’s sleep might lie in your headphones