Which binaural beat should I use?
| Track | Beat | Brainwave | Use it for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Deep Sleep | 2 Hz | Delta (0.5–4 Hz) | Falling asleep and deep, slow rest |
| Drift Off | 6 Hz | Theta (4–8 Hz) | Winding down, meditation, the drowsy edge of sleep |
| Alpha Calm | 10 Hz | Alpha (8–13 Hz) | Relaxing, stress relief, calm focus while you study |
| Earth Resonance | 7.83 Hz | Theta–alpha border | Grounding; the Schumann resonance, the Earth's own frequency |
| Gamma | 40 Hz | Gamma (30+ Hz) | Focus; the 40 Hz tone from gamma research (works on speakers) |
For sleep, start with Deep Sleep and set Auto-stop. For daytime calm, Alpha Calm is the gentlest.
What are binaural beats?
Play one tone in your left ear and a slightly different tone in your right, and your brain hears a third, pulsing “beat” at the difference between them. SleepHz's Alpha Calm plays 200 Hz and 210 Hz, so you hear a 10 Hz pulse. “Binaural” simply means “with both ears.”
The effect was found in 1839 and brought into modern research by Oster, Scientific American, 1973. The idea behind using them is brainwave entrainment: that the brain may drift toward the rhythm it hears, slower for sleep and faster for focus.
Binaural beats for sleep
Deep sleep is dominated by delta brain waves, 0.5 to 4 Hz. In a small sleep-lab study (Jirakittayakorn & Wongsawat, Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 2018), 24 people slept three nights in the lab; on the last night, those who heard a 3 Hz binaural beat spent longer in deep sleep (stage N3) than those who got a silent sham. It's one small study, but it's the kind of result that makes delta beats the classic choice for bedtime.
Use soft sleep headphones, keep the volume low and set Auto-stop for an hour. If headphones keep you up, use brown noise or ocean waves on a speaker instead.
Binaural beats benefits: what studies show
The strongest evidence is for anxiety. In a randomized trial (Padmanabhan et al., Anaesthesia, 2005), patients who listened to binaural beats before day surgery saw their anxiety fall 26.3%, versus 11.1% with the same audio minus the beats and 3.6% with nothing.
A 2019 meta-analysis (Garcia-Argibay et al., Psychological Research, 2019) pooled 22 studies and found a medium, consistent effect on memory, attention, anxiety and pain perception. Listening before a task worked better than only during it.
Whether the brain actually locks onto the beat is less clear. A 2023 review of 14 EEG studies (Ingendoh et al., PLOS ONE, 2023) found 5 that supported entrainment, 8 that didn't and 1 mixed. So the honest summary: binaural beats seem to help some people relax and focus, but nobody has proven exactly why, and they're not a treatment for any condition. More on our science page.
How to listen to binaural beats
- Use headphones or earbuds. Each ear has to hear its own tone, so speakers won't make the beat.
- Set the volume low, just above what you can easily hear.
- Pick a beat: Deep Sleep for bed, Drift Off to unwind, Alpha Calm for focus.
- Listen for at least 10 to 15 minutes. The 2019 meta-analysis found longer listening worked better.
- Set Auto-stop so it fades out on its own.
Binaural beats vs isochronic tones
An isochronic tone is a single tone that switches on and off in a steady rhythm, so you hear the pulse directly. It doesn't need headphones. Binaural beats need two ears and headphones, and the pulse is softer, created inside your head.
SleepHz's 40 Hz Gamma track is isochronic: a tone pulsing 40 times a second, the kind of sound used in 40 Hz gamma research. The other three tracks are true binaural beats.
Are binaural beats safe?
For most people, yes, at a comfortable volume. Studies haven't found that binaural beats damage the brain or hearing; loud volume is the real risk with any headphones. Don't listen while driving or doing anything that needs your full attention, and talk to a doctor first if you have epilepsy or a seizure disorder.
