Do Binaural Beats Help Induce Lucidity?
This is a funny one to me. My mom bought me a set of binaural beat CD's back when CD's where a relatively new thing. Yes, I was a kid and it was a long time ago. The set I had included one CD for each of the prominent brain-waves: Beta, Alpha, Theta, and Delta, plus a few combinations. The goals for the CD's were for things like Relaxation, Meditation, Deep Sleep, Calm Focus. They were pleasant enough to listen to, but I never noticed much affect..
Binaural beats supposedly work through something called "entrainment." What this means is that the brain would mimic the frequency, or beat, being played through your ears. However, the frequency "heard" is the difference between what is entering through your right ear and left, and therefor headphones are required. For example, if the right ear is receiving a 200 Hz frequency and the left a 110 Hz frequency, the brain should subtract these and entrain onto a 90 Hz frequency. Of course, the brain doesn't really work like that. Maybe to a small degree, but if it was that simple reality would be way stranger. There are all sorts of Binaural Frequencies available for fee or free through Youtube and other web-sites. They claim to help with all sorts of things, from lucid dreaming, to studying, to simulating a DMT trip. Although these sounds are likely harmless, I am also of the opinion that they do not work. Try them out for yourself, maybe they will work for you, even if only due to placebo. The one way I might see them working is if you did something like this: Listen to a Binaural Frequency (which one shouldn't really matter) and as it is playing through your headphones practice asking the Critical Question and thin king about your lucid dream goals. This may train you to associate the sound with exercising good lucid dream protocol. Then, when the association is ingrained, play the beat again at a time when you should enter REM-Sleep (i.e., during a Wake-Back-To-Bed sleep session). If all goes well, the sound may trigger the right steps leading to a lucid dream. |