No experience with brainwave entrainment, understand the fundamental physics governing brainwaves and their related states. Alpha, theta... Grew up in an environment surrounded by electronic test equipment, and continue to use to a lesser degree today.
My simple use of these (related?) principles is the use of music to help alter my mood, very effective for me.
I used to meditate, seems much harder to still the mind now. Hope B-ent.. will help facilitate the meditative process.
Also I work ‘swing shifts’ trying to find a solution to very little sleep, 5 nights of work generally equals ~ 15 to 20 hours of sleep. Becoming a problem for me as I get older...
No, I’m learning as we speak.
Been curious for some time but it seems it’s most vocal proponents are you tubers and some of their claims are downright ridiculous if not criminal.
That has so far kept me from investigating further.
Thank you for your input.
There is a lot of fluff and nonsense spouted about Brainwaves, but there is also a lot of hard science, and the science that is real is also quite profound!
Brainwaves were first measured in humans about 100 years ago with the invention of the EEG. They are real and result from the way neurons “fire”, and subsequently need to “re-charge”.
Groups of neurons working together tend to synchronize their firings, as do groups of neurons in close physical proximity.
The result is globally measurable waves of electrical activity in the brain.
There can be competing centers of brainwave activity in the brain as the brain multi-tasks.
Meditation is largely the practice of learning to “nip in the bud” the random, sporadic, and often worthless musings of the conscious mind as it processes superficial concepts.
Each of these random musings sets up a localized region of Beta activity.
Beta activity in itself is not undesirable, and is absolutely desirable when you need to be here, now. It is the type of activity associated with regular consciousness.
The key is to focus it rather than waste bandwidth on random musings...
So, in this respect, meditation is not directly related to brainwave activity - but instead learning the discipline to stop being a scatterbrain, and improve the effectiveness of brain activity - whatever that activity is!
Now, when you don’t need to be “here and now”, and you can silence the musings, the brain naturally slows down - Beta is a high energy state, meaning that it takes a lot of energy to sustain it!
Actually, in most people, the brain naturally slows down briefly for a “breather” every couple of minutes - but folks don’t notice this happening.
At a lower energy than Beta is the Alpha level - where the dominant waves are in the slower Alpha range.
Alpha tends to dominate when you are chilling out, watching tv, a movie, or listening to a story.
You are awake, but not really “here and now”. This is actually an “altered state” of consciousness. One of many.
It typically involves feeling relaxed, comfortable, and slightly detached from physical stimuli as your awareness shifts from what you see/hear to the subject of the story...
Alpha is also associated with mild hypnosis...
It is also the state your mind shifts-to when you are “in the zone” and your mind/body become one.
Active meditation generally triggers Alpha states as you focus on the activity without the distraction of random conscious musings. (Most active meditation requires concentration on the activity that is strong enough to override the natural tendency of the conscious mind to rand muse...)
This form of meditation is great for beginners who struggle to still the conscious mind and suppress the musings...
Now, entrainment can impose an Alpha state, if desired, to some extent, but it is only marginally effective at suppressing the musings. This still requires practice and discipline!
Below Alpha is Theta. Theta is a very low energy state - typically associated with daydreaming and vegging out.
Daydreaming is actually the similar to dreaming except you are awake and have some awareness of your environment and control of your muscles (in dreaming a part of the brain effectively cuts off any commands your brain sends to your limbs...)
The theta state is very interesting, and while it is the subject of a lot of whacked out metaphysical claims, does have many medical positives!
In Theta, you are typically physically inactive, and get many of the benefits of sleep in that your brain re-balances a lot of the built-up metabolites resulting from conscious activity. Theta automatically eliminates stress and anxiety (which are associated with too much Beta activity). The reduction in activity and brain metabolites also allows the immune system to reduce inflammation - helping to reduce chronic pain to some extent.
At the lower levels of Theta, the body also starts to release the growth hormones - typically released in sleep - which can accelerate healing and boosts the immune system.
Hence, achieving and maintaining Theta states - under controlled conditions - is very desirable, and can provide many of the benefits of sleep without needing to actually sleep!
Theta is also associated with oob holistic thinking and is a great source of inspirational creativity if you need to solve problems where regular logic (Beta) cannot deliver a solution.
Now, entrainment can induce Theta states IF you are able to chill. If you are actively struggling with a conscious problem, then Theta entrainment will have no effect. But if you have either the discipline to still the conscious, or can focus on a tranquil experience, then Theta entrainment can take you right down - and you can get many of the benefits without needing years of practicing meditation...
Below Theta is Delta. Generally, when you are in Delta, you are sleeping.
Being in Delta while also awake is where all the
really whacked out claims about meditation come from...
Entrainment to Delta is a great way to send you to sleep at night! Done right, it can shut down the high Beta activity associated with insomnia and send you off to the land of Nod!
Now all of this may sound outlandish, but this stuff has been the subject of a great deal of medical research over the last 100 years.
I have refrained from going into the metaphysical stuff.
Currently, the main area of research is into Gamma states - a super-high energy state above Beta.
There is still a lot of nonsense spouted about Gamma, but it seems that it is good for Brainstorming, and appears to allow some sort of synergy between Beta logic and Theta inspiration...
My own experience is consistent with this.
So, what IS entrainment?
Well, if you have ever listened to a song, and found yourself bouncing to the beat, then you were entrained! Simple as that!
Technically, it is called the Frequency Following Response, and follows from the natural tendency that neurons have to synchronize with each other.
Binaural beats are a common approach to entrainment because most brainwave frequencies are in a range just below our hearing threshold, but higher than our ability to process individual pulses...
Binaural beats induces tones with slightly different frequencies into each ear, and the brain helpfully
creates a brainwave between your ears at a frequency corresponding to the difference between the two tones!
Your brain then syncronizes to this self-induced brainwave!
It is pretty cool!
An additional beneficial side effect of this is that it exercises and strengthens your corpus calossum - increasing the integration between left and right hemispheres of the brain.
For 99.99% of people this is a definite benefit, but in folks prone to seizures it might not be... Medically, nobody knows why, but in folks with excessive seizures, severing the corpus calossum can eliminate them.
So, because of this, binaural beats are generally not recommended for folks prone to seizures...
Let me know if this info is helpful.
It is all available on the internet, and if you dig, you can find a wealth of medical research to back it up.
www.alliedacademies.org
medium.com
