The Effectiveness of Brainwave Entrainment by Binaural Beats on the Sleep Quality

Abstract

Background and Objective: Binaural beats are important because these methods are non-invasive intervention meth-ods on sleep. The aim of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of brainwave entrainment via binaural beats on the improvement of sleep disorders. Materials and Methods: An experimental method with pre-test and post-test design was adopted to fulfill the purpose of the present study. The population of the study included all the people aged 20 to 40 years who referred to psychiatric clinics due to insomnia in Tehran, Iran, in 2019. Among this population, a sample size of 24 people was selected using convenience sampling and randomly divided into experimental and control groups (12 people in each group). The Pitts-burgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) and the Insomnia Severity Index (ISI) were used to collect the required data. An au-ral synchronizer was also used as an intervention in the experimental group. Analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) was used to analyze the hypotheses. Results: The mean age of the participants in the experimental and control groups was 29.5 and 33.0 years, respectively. The calculated effect size of this treatment was 0.46 for sleep quality and 0.43 for the insomnia. Further, the findings showed that synchronization through binaural beats had the greatest effect on the sleep latency component of PSQI. Conclusion: Synchronization of brain waves by binaural beats had a significant effect on improving the total score of sleep quality and insomnia.

Keywords

• Brainwave feedback; Delta sleep; Slow-wave sleep; Sleep quality; Sleep wake disorders; Insomnia