Sleep Induction with BrainWave Generator, Binaural Beats
Just last night I tried, for the first time, to use an export from the wonderful BrainWave Generator, which I had recommended to me by a reader and posted about previously.
I don’t have the $40 or $50 odd dollars to shell out on a full license for the program so I wasn’t able to try one of the presets from the website. Besides, I haven’t even tried the included presets yet. Well, yesterday I had decided to give it a try. I knew I had to get up really early, and I’m all too familiar with how long it normally takes me to fall asleep. So, I used the sleep induction (from wide awake) preset that comes with the program.
I exported it as a WAV file, converted it to a relatively high quality MP3 and put it on a disc for my MP3CD player. I exported 40 minutes worth, although the default is 30 — even an average day, falling asleep in 40 minutes I would consider great. I put it on and began to listen. Right away I definitely noticed that I was relaxing a bit even though I was almost entirely wide awake. As 25 minutes passed, I found myself drifting in and out of a mental state that wasn’t quite sleep, but did seem a little deeper than what hypnogogia might be. I was pretty well aware that I was still awake, but as I heard the hertz slowly start to drop even more I was able to relax even further. At this point I do think I fell asleep, but I was awoken soon after because of a hypnogogic jerk and I wasn’t able to fall asleep after, but there were only a few minutes left on the track.
It’s hard to say whether or not falling into the hypnogogic state because of this was entirely a self-fulling prophecy or not, or a bit of the placebo effect, but it did seem to work if nothing but a little bit. I’m definitely willing to try again, and I’m happy to note that listening to the constant waving hertz of sound wasn’t nearly as annoying or distracting as I thought it would be.
[Update Mar 2, 2007:] In response to a comment by “ban k”, I use software called dBpoweramp Music Convertor which is available for free and will let you convert between just about any audio format you would never need.
February 24th, 2007 at 9:58 pm
Excellent. Sleep itself is a self-fulfilling prophecy.
It appears that you can allow yourself more freedome with the frequencies themselves than with music overlays and people trying to explain to you how to do it. I found this to be very distracting in the inital phase. Your mind is so caught up in intellectually following instructions that you never leave beta.
As a side exercise: when turning the beats on, allow yourself to image some place important to you and focus only on seeing it in your mind through the senses: textures, colors, smells, etc. Don’t analyze the place, just go with the impressions.
John Q.
March 1st, 2007 at 5:33 pm
how do you convert them into mp3 files because i want to put it on my ipod
July 20th, 2008 at 10:06 pm
Great binaural beats resource
September 9th, 2009 at 3:17 pm
I heard somone cite isochronic tones the last week, are you aware of what this is or where I could find out about it?
September 17th, 2009 at 5:06 am
I’ve been employing brainwave entrainment for a while now, but not had very much of success - could you propose someplace I can get quality CDs?
September 30th, 2009 at 7:42 am
This is exactly what I have been looking for. It’s been a few days since I first come across this subject (think I have been living under a rock), but the more I read the clearer it all gets.