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

Hasan Dini; Mahdieh Rahmanian; Ahmad Alipour; Sepehr Arbabi

doi:10.18502/jss.v6i(3-4).10890

Hasan Dini Department of Psychology, Faculty of Educational Sciences and Psychology, Payame Noor University, Tehran, Iran
Mahdieh Rahmanian Department of Psychology, Faculty of Educational Sciences and Psychology, Payame Noor University, Tehran, Iran
Ahmad Alipour Department of Psychology, Faculty of Educational Sciences and Psychology, Payame Noor University, Tehran, Iran
Sepehr Arbabi Department of Medical Physics-Radiation Oncology, Faculty of Medical Physics, University of Wuerzburg, Wuerzburg, Germany

DOI: https://doi.org/10.18502/jss.v6i(3-4).10890

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

Abstract

Background and Objective: Binaural beats are important because these methods are non-invasive intervention methods 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 Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) and the Insomnia Severity Index (ISI) were used to collect the required data. An aural 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.