Ten-Minute Mommy Recharge
As a mother-to-be, new mother, mother of five, or empty nester, there is one thing you will always need—just ten minutes to yourself to center, refresh, and recharge your brain and body before dropping back down into your centered heart. Motherhood involves the “invisible workload” of ensuring kids’ happiness and family survival. Some women describe child raising in addition to employment as a seemingly endless “second shift”. You may experience anxiety due to feelings of overwhelm. Women are nearly twice as likely to develop anxiety as men.[1] Binaural beats are an easy-to-use, easily accessible, and non-invasive way to recharge your precious me-time. Binaural beats technology shows great potential since users do not need to ingest drugs to change their brainwave patterns. It can now be done using sound alone.[2]
Pregnant women may experience stress and anxiety.Almost one-quarter of women experience worry, nervousness, and agitation during and after pregnancy.[3]Relaxation is especially important for womensuffering from pregnancy complications.The human brain is sensitive to sound. Your entire nervous system operates as a semiconductor for sound. Binaural beats are a specific type of sound that exist only in your head when you listen to them through stereo headphones. How can binaural beats cause real changes in brain function? The human brain is an organic substance that produces electrochemical energy. Brain cells use this electrochemical energy to communicate through brainwaves. Binaural beats can change brainwave patterns and human performance associated with the waves.[1]
Listening to binaural beats can be a safe way to feel happier and more relaxed while you are pregnant. Five brainwave frequencies are used in binaural beats products. In this specific goal of supporting relaxation, alpha binaural beats are popular due to their ability to reduce anxiety and promote relaxation.[2] The brain responds to the sound of alpha beats by producing its own supply of alpha waves at a selected frequency between 8-12 Hz. Alpha brain waves bring a state of relaxation and reduced stress. Alpha beats have even been used for chronic pain[3] to help dental surgery patients relax.[4]
Beta binaural beats are another option for support with focusing. You can use beta binaural beats to focus and learn.[5]We are inbeta when we are awake and alert during waking hours. You can listen to beta beats to increase mental focus while studying, working, or engaging in other mentally demanding tasks. Yet, too much beta is also the state in which we feel the most stress. You can shift out of beta into alpha[1] or theta[2] to relax. The use of a repetitive theta sound beat to cause feelings of bliss is as old as trance music, dancing and drumming. Theta causes an even deeper state of relaxation than alpha. Theta beats have even been used to reduce pain and lower the need for pain medication in clinical settings.[3]
Here is how you would use theta binaural beats to reach deep relaxation. Select a theta binaural beats product that provides tones in the range of 4-8 hertz. For example with a carrier frequency of 440 hertz and a goal of 6 hertz, you would put 437 hertz the left ear, and 443 in the right ear. As you listen to the tones, your brain will respond by producing a 6 hertz theta frequency pattern, which will resonate in the two hemispheres of your brain and cause very deep relaxation. You can use binaural beats at delta frequency to help you sleep. Delta brainwaves are associated with deep sleep. Listening to delta beats before bed or while practicing relaxation techniques can lead you to a state of deep relaxation and even improve sleep quality[4] A blended relaxation formula of alpha and theta hertz is can provide a synergistic effect of those two frequencies. Blended frequencies more closely mimic the blend of frequencies found in your brain. Use binaural beats to enter the brainwave state of your choice for your ten-minute mommy recharge. Binaural beats are played beneath music, so choose music that you like. Music alone can put you in a relaxed state, so choose music that works for you personally. Since BB work by playing a different tone in each ear, use headphones or earbuds (but not while driving please!). Choose over-the-ear headphones if possible since they provide a fuller frequency of sound. Always listen to BB for at least ten minutes since it takes at least that long for brain neurons to start firing at the same rate as the BB.
I also prefer to use BB from research based binaural beats companies, rather than the BB of unknown origin that are flooding YouTube, Spotify and other channels. To that end I created my own app in which I feature songs with my lab tested formulas. If you have a favorite app that you use, check the research section of the app to make sure they have tested their formulas in the lab. If you’re unsure, email Sound Medicine® for a review of any research.
Stay tuned to future issues of this column, where we will next show you how to use BB to support your goals of focus and concentration. Refer back to previous issues for ideas on relaxation or intimacy. For more information, visit Elizabeth at www.sound-medicine.com. Sign up for the newsletter and receive a free binaural beats creativity track. For the full immersive Sound Medicine ® experience, download our app and receive a free two-week trial.
[1] Kuehner, C. (2017). Why is depression more common among women than among men?. The Lancet Psychiatry, 4(2), 146-158.:https://doi.org/10.1016/S2215-0366(16)30263-2
[2] Gantt, M. A., Dadds, S., Burns, D. S., Glaser, D., & Moore, A. D. (2017). The effect of binaural beat technology on the cardiovascular stress response in military service members with postdeployment stress. Journal of Nursing Scholarship, 49(4), 411–420. DOI: 10.1111/jnu.12304
[3] Liou, S. R., Wang, P., & Cheng, C. Y. (2014). Longitudinal study of perinatal maternal stress, depressive symptoms and anxiety. Midwifery, 30(6), 795-801. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.midw.2013.11.007
[4] Gantt et al., 2017
[5] Gantt et al., 2017
[6] Gkolias, V., Amaniti, A., Triantafyllou, A., Papakonstantinou, P., Kartsidis, P., Paraskevopoulos, E., ... & Kouvelas, D. (2020). Reduced pain and analgesic use after acoustic binaural beats therapy in chronic pain‐A double‐blind randomized control cross‐over trial. European Journal of Pain, 24(9), 1716-1729. DOI: 10.1002/ejp.1615
[7] Isik, B. K., Esen, A., Büyükerkmen, B., Kilinç, A., & Menziletoglu, D. (2017). Effectiveness of binaural beats in reducing preoperative dental anxiety. The British Journal of Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery, 55(6), 571–574. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bjoms.2017.02.014
[8] Gantt et al., 2017
[9] Isik et al., 2017
[10] Gantt et al., 2017
[11] Gkolias et al., 2020
[12] Gantt et al., 2017
