Conventional wisdom says that classical music improves learning. Researchers even coined the Mozart effect to describe the potential increase in spatial-temporal reasoning while listening to Mozart’s music.
However, there’s an entire category of music that gets overlooked in these discussions:
Binaural Beats
Binaural beats are designed to induce specific brainwave frequencies. To understand why they are useful, you must understand how brainwave frequencies impact cognition.
There are 5 brainwave states. The lower frequencies correspond to more relaxed mental activity, and vice versa for the faster frequencies. The progression looks like:
Binaural beats help you control these brainwave frequencies.
The music sends a slightly different sound frequency into each ear (e.g. 100 Hz into your left ear, 114 Hz into your right). Your brain processes the difference (14 Hz) and synchronizes your brainwave frequency accordingly (frequency following response).
The most common use for binaural beats is for meditation or sleep, targeting the Delta or Theta frequencies. But they can also be used for productive work.
While studying for exams, I like to target the high Alpha/low Beta frequencies – a combination of the flow state plus analytical thinking.
Using Binaural Beats While Studying
I’m an actuary, not a neuroscientist. I can’t speak to the robustness of the research or theoretical foundation behind binaural beats. But I can conduct a simple cost-benefit analysis.
Binaural beats have no incremental cost – you can find them on YouTube, Spotify, or any music-streaming service.
But they do have a positive expected benefit.
Best-case scenario: the binaural beats work as intended and increase focus.
Worst-case scenario: binaural beats do nothing, but you still get some benefit from the placebo effect.
This positive asymmetry makes it an easy decision. Try out binaural beats (14
Study Smart, Pass Fast, Live Life
Mike & Roy