Binaural Beats

Binaural Beats are also known as Binaural Tones. They are sounds/tones which produce specific stimuli in your brain, but that will not suffice so lets dive into them more deeply. How Do Binaural Beats Work? Basically, your brain when perceiving two tones with subtle differences between them (or with frequencies slightly different than each other) will pick up the difference between the two frequencies when the difference is < or = to 30Hz. When this happens, the brain will hear this difference as a binaural tone/beat. But this is where they effect the brain. You have probably heard of all the different brain waves which tend to correlate to different patterns of thinking. The breakdown is below; Gamma Waves (> 40Hz) are usually associated with fear, perception, problem solving and strong mental activity Beta Waves (13-39Hz) are associated with busy/anxious or nervous thinking, active concentration, paranoia and arousal Alpha Waves (7-13Hz) are associated with a state of relaxation while being fully awake. Possible pre-sleep, REM sleep, & Dreams Theta Waves (4-7Hz) are associated with deep meditation, relaxation and NREM sleep Delta Waves (<4Hz) are the product of deep sleep, loss of body awareness How does this relate to Binaural Beats? Remember the part about the difference between the two frequencies creating the binaural beat you hear in your brain? Well, if the difference created from two frequencies is say 10Hz, then your creating a binaural beat which will help to stimulate Alpha Waves in your brain. These waves are associated with being in a state of relaxation while being awake. Basically, the brain (through a frequency following response mechanism) when it receives a stimulus such as a binaural beat that has a frequency associated with a particular brain wave (i.e. alpha, delta, theta, gamma, beta), your brain will adjust its frequency towards the one it is hearing. This is where Binaural Beats become useful and is called by neurophysiologists as Entrainment. Entrainment (also known as Brainwave Synchronization) is using frequencies (and the frequency following mechanism) to stimulate your brain into a particular dominant frequency. By using binaural beats, you can train your brain to be in a more optimal state (Alpha or Theta Waves) which are associated with a more relaxed state and meditative state. Being anxious, fearful, unfocused, paranoid, etc. will obviously cause you to make more emotional decisions (fear of losing so you close your trade early), more irrational decisions (I just lost and have to make it up, so i’m doubling my position size), essentially clouding your mind which needs to be clear, alert and sharp. Binaural beats are a neuro-feedback technique to train your brain to be in an optimal state while trading. From my experience, this is far superior to biofeedback, such as strictly monitoring HRV (heart rate variability) which can often be a secondary effect from your mental state. On top of it, using just biofeedback only informs you when your not in an optimal state. Although this is useful, you are still left with the work to get yourself back into optimal state. Try going from being really angry or frustrated (about a big loss, or anything) to optimal thinking in a short period of time. Not easy is it, especially when your trading and money is changing hands fast, or you have to make quick decisions. This is why I prefer neuro-feedback as a far more valuable tool, particularly binaural beats and isochronic tones because they are training your mind to be in that state through the frequencies which create a neurophysiological pattern of thinking more conducive to trading. Why eyes closed? Your brain is wired to take in more data through your eyes than anything else (about 70% of all data your central nervous system takes in). So when your eyes are open, you will be reducing your bandwidth by taking in visual stimuli. By having your eyes closed, you are, in effect directing all your energy into creating the dominant brain waves which will help to produce a more optimal neurological state for trading. It should also be noted binaural beats are best listened to through headphones so you can easily isolate the difference in the sounds. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.