Talk:Binaural beats

Debunked?

Cmon people this stuff is clearly nonsense. Articles like this are why wikipedia sucks. Companies are using this webpage to sell phony inefficacious products and noone can be bothered to stop them. The first thing this article needs to make clear is that there is no convincing evidence that 'binaural beats' have any measurable effect on humans distinguishable from normal music and there is no reason to think they would, the theory is gibberish. Better to remove the article than have it explain the phony 'science' behind it 'hypothetically' because this misleads readers into thinking this concept has some substance. - Oli

Whatever gets you high, but binaural beats have no effect on brain waves. They can have subjective mood-altering effects, like all music. Washington Post citing experimental studies by Daniel Levitin, Montréal. I'm just leaving the link here, not changing the article because I have no intention of getting into an edit war with gullible teenagers.--94.222.122.61 (talk) 15:59, 8 August 2010 (UTC)

That's not quite what the article you quote says -- the article suggests that there are brain-wave and mood altering effects rather like those achieved through meditation or from listening to some music. It goes on to question whether the effects were due to the sound files themselves or simply to the necessity to sit quietly for an extended period of time. In either case, though, the subjects experienced an effect.

Howver, the article does say that the meditative effect of binaural beats does not simulate actual drug use. 216.195.173.165 (talk) 17:26, 26 September 2010 (UTC)

Dear "Cmon"- The article contains citations in support of some research affects. You might be claiming you are an authority, but that is not a substitute for the sources on which wikipedia must rely. --Ihaveabutt (talk) 20:12, 31 December 2010 (UTC)

And any unbiased examination of the available references shows it's clearly all a placebo. There is evidence in support of it, but the VAST majority of the evidence is against it. This article does not cite a single citation criticizing the phenomenon even though there is pretty much a scientific consensus it's fake.

It's extremely biased. Citing a few sources does not eliminate the fact that far more sources oppose it than support it.99.6.157.136 (talk) 20:51, 10 September 2012 (UTC)

Can someone provide some published studies to the effect that "the vast majority of the evidence is against it"? I know research is scant, but there do seem to be some empirical studies in reputable journals that binaural beats can help improve concentration and focs, e.g. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9423966 - Nessman (talk) 20:17, 6 February 2013 (UTC)

One of the cited references, which is used to support the reduction of pain, actually reaches the opposite conclusion than what it is claimed to support. It actually shows that music is considerably more effective. The reference, which seems well-supported even if not fully peer reviewed, seems to have been cited based on its title alone. It really supports the debunking of this claim ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Binaural_beats#cite_note-Bryant-11 ) 24.126.220.186 (talk) 03:52, 7 March 2014 (UTC) EB

Binaural Beats is a misnomer

I believe the term "binaural" is a misnomer. The word means two-ears. While it's true binaural beats would not be possible without two seperate ears, we hear things with two separate ears all the time without inducing binaural beat effects (i.e. two-channel audio, aka stereo speakers/headphones). The interesting effects of binaural however, occur because we have two seperate hemispheres of our brains, one hemisphere listening to the left ear, one listening to the right, and our brains "hearing" audio frequencies otherwise outside of the human range of hearing.

Therefore I believe "bi-neural" (or whatever is latin for brain hemisphere) would be a more appropriate and meaningful term. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 184.88.145.243 (talk) 00:02, 20 June 2012 (UTC)

Online Sample

"An on-line sound example of a sound with binaural beats can be found here."

The provided link with the example is fake. The way to check if it is a legitimate binaural sound is to listen to one side, then the other seperately to hear the tone. If you hear the beat on one side or the other, your soundcard is mixing the two channels to produce a mono channel, or the sound is fake to dupe you into thinking you can hear it. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 115.70.80.179 (talk) 10:11, 23 July 2012 (UTC)

If you're referring to "Example of binaural beats" in the External links section, read the documentation, which says that the signal is amplitude modulated at 5 Hz. The binaural beat however is at 0.25 Hz, so you're supposed to hear the signal moving back and forth every 4 seconds. I had a very vague sense something might have been changing at that rate, but was unable to associate the change with left or right. Maybe if they'd turn the 5 Hz AM signal off the effect might be clearer. (The stereo works very well in my Plantronics DSP-500 headphones and at least at 500 Hz I have very acute hearing in both ears.) --Vaughan Pratt (talk) 22:15, 4 October 2012 (UTC)

it works (but is no magic)

There was a common wave editing program that could do alteration to a sound track to add binaural beats to a waveform. I've tried it, and it works, but it's not much of a magic behind it. My experience is that it works if you select a comfortable audio track to relax to which is about 5-10 minutes. Then make a binaural beat to slowly turn down the mix frequency so that delta frequencies are inducted only at half way and the inducted frequency slightly drops towards that goal. Finally, listen to it in a relaxed position (e.g. lying on a sofa with headphones on). You should feel a comfortable relaxation as soon as the sounds seem to stop being disordinate between the stereo speakers and seem to blend into a common rythm. This is of course no magic: You'll need a tune to which you can relax anyways. You'll need to be in a position to relax anyways. You'll need to take the time to relax. And it won't do wonders (e.g. having only slept a few hours a night and waiting for the magical refreshing effect). But in the aforementioned circumstances it helps quite a bit to refresh, at least for me. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 62.216.204.207 (talk) 21:59, 4 March 2013 (UTC)

Binaural beats sample incongruency

"Note that the sound appears to pulsate. Now remove one earphone. Note that the pulsations disappear completely. Repeat with your other ear."
For me, the pulsations do not disappear. NiteCyper (talk) 06:38, 6 October 2013 (UTC)

Military testing

Walter Reed National Military Medical Center is currently (April 2014) testing this treatment on troops returning from deployment. They are conducting a sleep survey to see if binaural beats help relieve stress and blood pressure. 69.137.150.35 (talk)