Regardless of what music you like to listen to, you can likely reflect on the power that it has had to get you through difficult times, motivate you during a workout, enhance your focus throughout a work task, and so on. We can feel that emotional connection, that energy with each beat. It’s not just the lyrics that influence what music we select at a given point, but also the rhythm, melody, harmony, volume, and intensity.

How is it that sound exerts such a powerful physiological response as to reduce anxiety and stress? Well, sound is not inert. Sound travels from the source, such as a musical device, to our ears, in the form of waves that travel slower than light waves. The sensation of loudness is influenced by the height and frequency of sound waves, with greater height and frequency corresponding to a louder perception of sound. Frequency is measured in hertz, and 20 Hz means that tone or beat vibrates 20 times every second. We can typically hear sounds that are between 20 and 20,000 hertz.

The sound wave hits our eardrum, making it vibrate and transmit this vibration deeper into our ear, through a fluid-filled tunnel that contains hair cells. The vibrations cause the fluid to move in waves, which then makes the hair cells move. This information from the hair cells is sent from the auditory nerve in the ear, to the brain, which can then decode it. If each ear hears a tone of a different frequency, then the difference between the two frequencies will be perceived by the brain. For example, if our right ear hears a 200 Hz tone, and our left ear a 210 Hz tone, then our brain will perceive this as a 10 Hz beat. This binaural beat is one method used by sound therapy.

Sound therapy uses low frequencies that fall in the alpha-theta-gamma-delta range, which corresponds to the brainwave frequencies that vibrate in the lower range. To put this into perspective, let’s think for a moment about the sleep cycle. When we’re awake and fully conscious and alert, the frequency of our brain waves is between 14-30 Hz, which are called beta waves. When we begin to fall asleep and dissociate ourselves from the external environment, our brain starts to drift into a calm state, characteristic of alpha waves, which range from about 8 to 12 Hz. Waves in this frequency range can stimulate production of serotonin, the chemical that anti-depressants like SSRIs are responsible for increasing. There is also evidence for enhanced memory, reductions in cortisol, the major stress hormone, and emotional stability. Creative flow states may also be enhanced, and actually, when the brain of Albert Einstein was analyzed using an EEG, it showed he produced consistent alpha-band activity while solving complex mathematical tasks. Once we get into even deeper sleep, we delve into even lower vibrational frequencies, say between 4-8 Hz, called theta brainwaves. These brain waves are present during deep relaxation, when we are dreaming during REM sleep. It is believed that this mental state allows us to reach our subconscious.

Now let’s switch gears and explore how brain waves are associated with our health, and how sound therapy may help myriad problems. Let’s take drug addiction as our first example. Research has demonstrated that detoxified alcoholic patients have increased beta activity and a decrease in both alpha and theta, meaning they’re more in an alert phase. In the early stage of individuals abstinent from heroin, there has been reported deficiency in alpha activity, compared to healthy controls. In individuals who have been abstinent from cocaine for a long period of time, there is reduced activity in theta and delta waves, which are of the lowest frequency. In delta wave state, we are in our deep dreamless sleep. We experience cortisol reduction, immune boosting, and release of beta endorphins, which are responsible for suppressing pain. Some of the beneficial effects of low frequency sound therapy with drug addiction is believed to be as a result of this increase in beta endorphins.

Lower frequency brain waves can also stimulate the release of nitric oxide, which signals smooth muscles to relax, so our blood vessels dilate and increase blood flow. Release of nitric oxide positively affects pain transmission and control, which some scientists believe helps to modify our relationship to pain. In a 2015 study of patients suffering with fibromyalgia, low-frequency sound stimulation was delivered twice a week for five weeks. The medication dose was reduced in about 74% of patients and completely discontinued in 26%. A majority of these patients were able to significantly increase the amount of time they spent sitting and standing without pain. Although it wasn’t determined whether this was due to nitric oxide or beta endorphin increase, it’s consistent with reported beneficial effects of using low frequency sound stimulation.

The idea of accessing these desired brain wave states using sound is very intriguing. There is an optimal range of frequencies that can open the gateway for learning and memory, allowing one to change unwanted subconscious behaviors. This range can increase suggestibility, or the quality of being inclined to accept and act on the suggestions of others.

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