There are many ways to get high. the drugs they can be smoked, ingested, snorted, touched or even heard. The latter may seem quite fanciful, but it is true that many consumers choose to experience something known as binaural beats or, more colloquially, sound drugs.
This is the use of two tones with slightly different frequenciesone on each ear, so the brain interprets them as one, equivalent to the difference of the two. For example, if one uses one of 220 Hz and another of 210 Hz, the brain will return a single hum equivalent to 10 Hz. For this difference to work, it can never be greater than 30 Hz. And this What happens is that in this process it has been seen that wave patterns associated with relaxation can also be generated. For this reason, these binaural beats have long been studied for their possible role in calm anxiety, relieve pain or help treat insomnia.
In fact, its study goes back more than two centuries. First, how they acted on the ear were observed, then they began to analyze whether they could have medical purposes, and later the recreational use of noise drugs.
Now, are binaural beats really effective in addressing some of the issues they are supposed to alleviate? Do noise drugs really get you high or is this all a demonstration of suggestion? The truth is that it is not yet fully known. There are many studies aimed at analyzing its medical applications, although most of them come to erroneous conclusions. And there are also those who analyze the power of sound drugs. In fact, the most recent, carried out by scientists from Australia and UKwas published just a few days ago, in Drug and alcohol review.
The Power of Sound Drugs
In the study just published, its authors collected data from World Drug Survey 2021attended by more than 30,000 people from all over the world.
Its objective was to verify whether habitual drug users, whatever their type, also resorted at some point to binaural beats. They found that about 5.3% had tried these noise drugs. Most of them (nearly 75%) did it to relax or sleep better, while 34.7% wanted a mood change and only 11.7% wanted a high.
Some people have turned to sound drugs to try to lucid dream
There was also a small percentage who said they had used sound drugs to try to achieve a lucid dream. These are dreams in which a person can act at will. They are supposed to be very helpful in developing creativity and that is a unique experience, so there are people who are really obsessed with directing. There are all kinds of web pages with advice on how to do this, the vast majority of them with dubious scientific evidence. They give bedtime guidelines to advice on food and other habits that might influence. Some seem to recommend the use of binaural beats, but there is no evidence that this is really effective.
In fact, there is no evidence in general that they work like healthy drugs. Although there are people who claim to have had an almost out of body experience while listening to them, it is not excluded that there is a suggestion, because scientists disagree on how it might get there. Now, what about the rest of the supposed applications of binaural beats?
Other applications of binaural beats
Supposedly, binaural beats will have one application or another depending on the frequency difference between the two beats.
If it is lower than 1-4 Hz, it favors deep sleep and relaxationwith 4-8 Hz it is related to Paradoxical sleep and creative and meditative states, at 8-13 Hz anxiety is reduced and moods are uplifted. positive thoughts and from 14 to 30 they increase attention and alertness. It’s what it’s supposed to be. However, most of the studies that reach these conclusions have been performed with unreliable procedures.
Many studies of binaural beats have been conducted with a methodology that leaves a lot to be desired.
For example, it is common for the number of participants to be very small or for clinical trials to be open and uncontrolled. be something that suggestion and placebo can have great relevance, it is advisable to have a good number of volunteers and that half of them receive a placebo, so that neither they nor the experimenters know who heard the binaural beats and who heard a recording which has nothing to do with it.
It is true that some much more comprehensive ones have been performed, both for the aforementioned purposes and for pain relief. In some cases, interesting changes were observed in their brain activity, but true brain modulations were not detected. state of mind
Yes, there is evidence of its use for treat painbut they are not very strong. A majority concludes that the investigation should be continued. And in those are the authors of this latest study.
In their case, they focus on the recreational purposes of binaural beats being used as sound drugs. And it is that, according to their conclusions, its use does not seem harmful and does not push consumers to try other drugs. Instead, resort to those who they were already taking drugs in another way. For this reason, they consider it important to continue to investigate in this regard, because if a pleasant response is really generated, they may be able to help those who take other much more harmful drugs to get out of it. .
