UNDERSTANDING BRAIN WAVE?
Your brain is made up of billions of brain cells called neurons, which use electricity to communicate with each other.
The combination of millions of neurons sending signals at once produces a significant amount of electrical activity in the brain, which can be detected using sensitive medical equipment such as an electroencephalogram (EEG).
This electrical activity of the brain is commonly known as a Brainwave pattern, because of its cyclic, ‘wave-like’ nature.
You can train your brain to change your brainwaves by learning meditation and relaxation techniques. However, it can take weeks, and for some people even years to experience the proven and powerful benefits of brainwave entrainment through meditation alone.
WHAT IS BINAURAL BEATS?
There is also a shortcut to getting the best from your brainwaves by using an audio tone known as binaural beats.
Binaural beats effectively entrain and synchronise your brainwaves to enhance any specific brainwave pattern. This allows you to rapidly enter states of relaxation, focus, high-energy, or meditation whenever you want.
HOW THEY ARE IMPORTANT?
At the root of all our thoughts, emotions and behaviours is the communication between neurons within our brains.
Our brainwaves change according to what we’re doing and feeling. When slower brainwaves are dominant we can feel tired, slow, sluggish, or dreamy. The higher frequencies are dominant when we feel wired, or hyper-alert.
TYPES OF BRAIN WAVE PATTERN?
Brain waves are measured in cycles per second (Hertz; Hz is the short form). We also talk about the "frequency" of brain wave activity.
The lower the number of Hz, the slower the brain activity or the slower the frequency of the activity.
GAMMA WAVES
30 to 70 Hz
Processing of various attended stimuli (visual, auditory, touch) and the grouping of the various features of a given stimulus, particularly visual, into a coherent whole.
Important points about Gamma Waves :
(1) There is no such thing as a “gamma state” of mind.
Gamma waves largely play a supporting – though integral- role in the brain. From an EEG point of view, they will be present mostly while a subject is awake, but they will always be supported by other waves in the beta, alpha, theta, or delta ranges.
2) They have been noted during Buddhist meditation of compassion & music listening experiments.
13 to 30 Hz
Associated with attentiveness, selective attention, concentration & anticipation.
They have been related to concentrated mental activity such as solving math problems, anxiety, and apprehension.
Important points about Beta Waves
(1) These are the waves of alertness, wakeful state. Most common and most prevalent in the brain.
If you are alert and awake, you are in Beta now.
(2) In meditation, beta waves have been noticed only in very experienced practitioners that too in a state of ecstasy and concentration.
7 to 13 Hz
Associated with relaxed wakefulness, and creative thought where attention may wander and free association is favored.
They are also correlated with a generally tranquil, pleasant, almost floating feeling.
Important points about Alpha Waves :
(1) Considered as the brainwaves of meditation. Most prominent during meditation.
(2) Considered as an integral part of the relaxation process before sleep.
The alpha frequency band has been studied extensively in meditations of various kinds (like Zen, TM etc) and in almost all cases an increase in the alpha waves has been noted during meditation.
(3) Use of Cannabis (marijuana) has also been linked to an increase in alpha waves in brain.
That’s why many people love the high they got from using drugs.
4 to 7 Hz
Associated with Dreams, deep meditation, hypnosis and, sleep, meditation, and hypnosis.
Seemed to be involved with short-term memory. It is a state of somnolence with reduced consciousness.
The theta-state is described by sleep researchers as stage 1 sleep or the twilight state.
In this states subjects pass out of the alert alpha-state into a theta-state in which they lose their sense of lying in bed, though still
being awake.
Important points about Theta Waves :
(1) Subjects can be easily awoken from this stage of sleep, and it has many interesting properties.
For a brief time as we lie in bed at night, neither fully awake nor yet asleep, we pass through a twilight mental zone like a state of reverie.
Many people associate this drowsy stage with hallucinatory images, more fleeting and disjointed than dreams, and compare it to the viewing of a speeded-up, jerky series of photographic slides.
A host of artists and scientists have credited the imagery of this twilight state with creative solutions and inspiration for their work.
(2) This theta stage is also observed in people under hypnosis.
DELTA WAVES
1 to 4 Hz
Associated with deep dreamless sleep.
Consistently observed in deep sleep. The deeper the sleep, the higher is the amount of delta waves.
Important points about Delta Waves :
(1) Meditative states associated with the increased presence of delta waves seem to occur mostly in very experienced practitioners, possibly because entering a delta state and maintaining consciousness at the same time is tremendously difficult.
(2) Also related wit the state of Samadhi, the deepest state in meditation as appeared in ancient Indian Yoga text.
REFERENCE BOOKS AND MEDITATION SUPPORT TOOLS
Muse: The Brain Sensing Headband, White
Brain Wave Vibration: Getting Back into the Rhythm of a Happy, Healthy Life
19-Channel EEG Weight Loss: Brain Wave Subliminal (Brain Sync Subliminal Series)
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