How Do Isochronic Tones Work? The Benefits and the Research

Isochronic tones are a fast and effective audio-based way to stimulate your brain. Among many benefits, they can help improve focus, relaxation, energy levels, sleep and more, without taking drugs or needing any special equipment.

What isochronic tones essentially do, is guide your dominant brainwave activity to a different frequency while you are listening to them, allowing you to influence and change your mental state and how you feel.

The effects can be felt within a few minutes; all you have to do is click, play and listen.

What You Need to Know About Isochronic Tones

You may have heard of binaural beats, which are similar but an older method of stimulating your brain.  In this in-depth article, you will discover:

• The key benefits of isochronic tones and how they work
• How isochronic tones are different and more effective than binaural beats
• How different tone/beat frequencies affect your mental state and the way you feel
• What frequencies do what, and what to look out for
• Are isochronic tones as effective when combined with music?
• How to use isochronic tones effectively and how long the effects last for
• Any potential safety concerns or side effects
• Isochronic tones and binaural beats research and where to find it

How Do You Use Isochronic Tones, and What Are The Benefits?

Isochronic tones can be used in many different ways for multiple benefits. When I first discovered them around 2006, their most popular use was for meditation and relaxation. While they are still trendy for meditation, an increasing number of people use them to help with studying and improve focus and concentration.

The central concept behind isochronic tones and brainwave entrainment methods is the ability to change one’s dominant brainwave frequency and guide one’s brain to a preferred or optimum mental state.

Stress or Anxiety Relief – When you feel stressed, agitated, anxious, or angry, your brain usually produces an increased amount of high-beta activity. Low beta or alpha-frequency isochronic tones can help lower your dominant frequency, reducing feelings of stress or anxiety.

Meditation and Relaxation – Sometimes, it can be difficult to relax properly, and it can be even more challenging to reach a deeper state of meditation, especially for those new to meditation. Low alpha and theta frequencies will help guide your brain to these profoundly relaxing and sometimes enlightening mental states.

Increase Focus, Cognition, and Memory – When it’s time to study or work, our brains aren’t always firing on all cylinders and ready to focus. If you feel tired, unmotivated, and distracted, isochronic tones in the beta range will elevate your brainwaves to a more optimal, high-focused state and keep your mind there for the duration.

Research has shown that Alpha stimulation can also improve one’s ability to memorize and retain information. So, it has become very popular among students, who listen to it while revising and memorizing information for tests and exams.

Improving Sleep and Power Napping – When you’re struggling to get to sleep, it’s very likely that your brain is producing too much beta activity. Brainwave entrainment tones can reduce beta activity and increase more in the low delta frequency range.  Helping you get to sleep faster.

Energy and Motivation – Increasing the amount of higher beta and gamma brainwave activity can help boost your energy levels and make you feel more alert. It’s a tremendous chemical-free alternative to caffeine and energy drinks.

What are Isochronic Tones, and What Do They Look and Sound Like?

Isochronic tones are consistent, regular beats of a single tone. To explain it in the simplest of terms, an isochronic tone is a tone that is switched on and off very quickly.

The speed at which the tone is switched on and off is measured in Hertz (Hz).   The image below shows the waveform of a 10Hz isochronic tone.

Example 10Hz Isochronic Tone

1 Minute demo of a 10Hz isochronic tone:

 10Hz tones

The example above shows a one-second snapshot of a 10Hz isochronic tone. If you count the waveforms, you’ll see they are repeated 10 times over this one-second time period.

How Do Isochronic Tones Work and Affect Your Brain?

Isochronic tones utilize a process known as brainwave entrainment, which can influence and drive brainwave activity to a more desired mental state. Entrainment occurs when the brainwave frequency starts to replicate that of the stimulus. With isochronic tones, the stimulus is in the form of a clear and repetitive beat/tone.

The distinct and repetitive beat of isochronic tones produces what’s known as an evoked potential, or evoked response, in the brain.  This is an electrical potential recorded from the nervous system following the presentation of a stimulus. These electrical potentials can be seen and recorded using an Electroencephalograph (EEG).

Brainwave Synchronization

The process of brainwave entrainment relies on the natural phenomena of synchronization. Entrainment is a ‘synchronization of two or more rhythmic cycles’; you may already have seen or experienced it yourself without knowing what was happening.

Here are a few examples of natural synchronization:

Tuning forks – When you strike a tuning fork and place another next to it, the second tuning fork will automatically vibrate at the same frequency.

Pendulum clocks and metronomes – If you place several pendulum clocks or metronomes near each other and set them all off swinging at different times, they will all start to swing together in unison within a few minutes.

Fireflies – If you are lucky enough to witness fireflies in action, you will notice that as the night wears on, they will flash in unison.

Brainwave Activity – Repeated light flashing or sound rhythms can stimulate and influence the frequency of your brainwave electrical pulses, which can be synchronized to the same frequency as the light flashing or sound rhythms.

Frequency Following Response

When brainwaves become entrained and synchronized with the same frequency of an isochronic beat, this is known as a frequency-following response (FFR). The frequency of the stimulus/beats can then be changed, and your dominant brainwave frequency follows with it.

Using the power of FFR, your brainwave activity can be guided to a more optimum frequency to enhance or improve your mental state.

For example, when you are very stressed or anxious, your brain usually produces an elevated amount of the higher beta brainwave activity. By stimulating your brain with lower alpha frequencies, you can reduce the frequency of your dominant brainwave activity, helping to calm your mind and reduce the feeling of stress.

Isochronic Tones vs Binaural Beats

Binaural beats were discovered in 1839 by German scientist Heinrich Wilhelm Dove. Isochronic tones are a much newer discovery. The first study, published by Arturo Manns in 1981, showed that isochronic tones produce a much stronger brainwave entrainment effect than binaural beats.

Because binaural beats were discovered first and have been around for so long, many people incorrectly label isochronic tones as a type of binaural beat.  In actual fact they are both just different methods of audio brainwave stimulation.

Isochronic Tones

• They produce a more distinct tone/beat, which results in a more robust ‘cortical evoked response’ in the brain, making the stimulation more effective.
• Standard sessions/tracks don’t require headphones.
• With advanced sessions requiring headphones, you can stimulate each side of the brain with a different beat frequency, allowing you to lower or increase the activity in one side of the brain.

Binaural Beats

• You always need headphones to hear Binaural Beats tracks effectively.
• It produces a very shallow waveform, which can be more pleasant to listen to but only produces a minimal ‘cortical evoked response’ in the brain.
• Not effective in the higher beta and gamma range frequencies
• You can’t target a specific side of the brain, just the whole brain.

How Do Binaural Beats Work?

A binaural beat is created by sending tones of a slightly different frequency into each ear, which results in the listener hearing a ‘perceived’ beat at the frequency equal to the difference between the two-tone frequencies. To put that more simply, here’s an example:

A tone of 200Hz is sent to the left ear

A tone of 210Hz is sent to the right ear

The difference between both frequencies is 10Hz, so the listener perceives a tone beating 10 times per second, i.e. 10Hz.

Again, using the above example, if the second tone in the right ear was increased to 220Hz, the difference would be 20Hz, so a 20Hz beat would be heard.

Why are Binaural Beats ‘Perceived’ and Not Just Heard Like Normal Beats?

Good question. With binaural beats, the resulting beat you hear is an auditory illusion created and heard inside your head. No beat is sent into your ears, just two plain tones at different frequencies. The brain recognises that the tones differ in each ear and produces a resulting beat after processing them.

The snapshot above shows no visible beat, just two continuous waveforms for each left and right channel/ear.  After the two tones are sent to each ear and heard inside your brain, a binaural beat waveform will look something like this:

A 1-minute demo of a 10Hz binaural beat:

10Hz binaural beat

As you can see from the diagram above, the waveform’s depth is very shallow, especially compared to the very clear and distinct space between each isochronic beat.

In a 2009 research article titled “Entraining Tones and Binaural Beats,” David Siever noted that the modulation depth (the difference between loud and quiet) is minimal at just 3db, a 2 to 1 ratio, compared to isochronic tones, which efficiently produce 50db, a 100,000 to 1 ratio.

In layman’s terms, this means that isochronic tones produce a much more pronounced and distinct sounding beat.  When measured on an EEG, binaural beats only produce a small response in the brain, and little to no impact on brainwave driving.  So for brainwave entrainment purposes, isochronic tones are more effective and superior.

I use isochronic tones on all my brainwave entrainment tracks and no longer use binaural beats.

How to use Isochronic Tones

The most common way to use isochronic tones is for a short-term benefit. They provide a chemical-free alternative to coffee, energy drinks, alcohol, pills, and other forms of medication. However, they are not meant to replace any medication prescribed by a Doctor or medical professional.

How Long Do the Effects From Isochronic Tones Last For?

The most common use of brainwave entrainment is for short-term benefit, to help guide the brain into a particular mental state when needed. Similarly, you might take a sleeping pill before bed to help you fall asleep, or maybe drink coffee or an energy drink to wake you up and boost your energy.

The effects are most potent while listening to the tones because your brainwaves are synchronized and tuned into the frequency range you desire at that time. After you’ve stopped listening, the effects can still linger.  The timescale will vary from person to person and be affected by what you do after you’ve stopped listening.

For example, if you use a meditation session to relax deeply, you might feel chilled for a few hours afterwards. But if you jump on a roller coaster after listening, your brainwaves will explode with beta and gamma activity from the adrenaline rush.

Some research suggests that the benefits from brainwave entrainment can last a lot longer and still be seen some time after you’ve stopped using it. Study participants maintained improved test scores a few weeks after the stimulation had ceased. Research on the long-term benefits has been minimal, though, so how long the effects last is still up for debate.

The Importance of Being Hydrated

You must be well hydrated before listening to Isochronic Tones, especially when using the higher Beta and Gamma frequency tracks. Around 75% of the brain consists of water, and you need to keep it hydrated to function well, especially when doing things requiring a higher concentration level.

Headphones are Not Required for ‘Standard’ Isochronic Tones Tracks

One of the main benefits of using isochronic tones compared to binaural beats is that you don’t need headphones. However, headphones can help intensify the effect of an isochronic tone track, and the over-ear type can be beneficial for blocking out external noises and distractions.

You will notice with some of my isochronic tones tracks that I say you need headphones. This is required in the more advanced sessions, where a different ‘frequency of beat’ is sent to each ear.

What’s the Best Volume Level to Listen to Them?

There isn’t an actual ‘peak volume’ level I can recommend for everyone because you’ll notice the beats will sound different depending on the equipment you use.

Many portable devices, such as laptops, mobile/cell phones, tablets, etc., don’t produce a lot of bass, so it can be hard to hear the tones on them, and the volume must be pretty high. If you listen with headphones on, you’ll usually find you can have a lot lower volume for the tones to be effective.

My best advice is to start with the volume around halfway and adjust it up or down to suit your preference. You’ll want the volume loud enough to hear the tones quite clearly but never so loud that it hurts your ears.

Increasing the volume level can affect the power of the tones. So, if a track does not have a substantial effect on you, try increasing the volume a little or using headphones if you haven’t done so before.

Are Isochronic Tones as Effective When Combined with Music?

For many people, isochronic tones can sound quite harsh when listened to alone, mainly when they are first getting used to the sound. To help improve the sound, they can be combined with music or ambient nature sounds, the most common way people listen to them.

A popular opinion in the brainwave entrainment community is that listening to isochronic tones without music produces a much stronger effect. However, the study by Doherty and Cormac, “A comparison of alpha brainwave entrainment, with and without musical accompaniment” (2014), concluded that brainwave entrainment was equally effective for isochronic tones with and without music.

Music Can Enhance the Experience

Combining the correct soundtrack with isochronic tones can positively affect one’s mood and the extent to which one receives the stimulation from the tones.

Music taste varies from person to person. Our moods and situations often dictate our preference for different styles of music.

This can have some impact on how effective isochronic tones can be. If you dislike a particular music genre, you will find it hard to sit through and respond to a track containing that type of music.  No matter how effective and valuable you believe, the isochronic tones will be.

Likewise, liking a particular music genre can make you feel more comfortable and relaxed and give you a more receptive mental state.

This is one of the key reasons I provide various soundtracks with each of my products. You can pick and choose which soundtrack suits your preference and mood.

Varying the Soundtrack You Use Can Help Prevent Habituation

One potential drawback of brainwave entrainment is that, over time, your brain can start getting used to the stimulation and become less effective. This is referred to as habituation.

Habituation is a common issue in many areas of life, and it’s one of the reasons people sometimes have to switch long-term medication. Over time, their brain and body become less sensitive to the same stimulus.

There are a few different ways to help prevent and overcome the problem of habituation.

• One way to avoid repeatedly listening to the same track is to mix your playlist with different isochronic tone sessions.
• Variate the pitch or beat frequency of the tones to make slightly different versions of the same session.
• Even listening to different volume levels can help in a small way.
• Mix different music tracks with the tones.

Note: I provide a ‘just tones‘ version along with six alternative background sounds for all the isochronic tones products I sell. This provides plenty of variety so you don’t get bored, allows you to change things up, and helps prevent habitation when you listen to the same isochronic tones session regularly.

Why ‘Some’ Advanced Isochronic Tone Tracks Require Headphones

In most cases, standard isochronic tone tracks don’t require headphones to be effective.

However, some isochronic tone tracks use what’s known as split hemisphere stimulation to help influence a specific side of the brain. To do that, each ear needs to be isolated and stimulated with a different frequency of ‘beat’. Hence, the need for headphones.

Before I explain how it works, I should explain why you would want to target and stimulate a specific side of your brain and some of its benefits.

The Left or Right-Brained Myth Explained

A well-known myth is that people are believed to be predominantly left or right-brained.  In a 2013 study by Utah University neuroscientists, the theory was debunked, proving that we use both sides of the brain equally.

However, although we don’t favour or mainly use a particular side of the brain in general, it’s true that some brain functions occur on one side or that specific brain functions result in much higher activity on one side than the other.

Quoted from Wikipedia:

The lateralization of brain function refers to how some neural functions, or cognitive processes tend to be more dominant in one hemisphere than the other.

In layman’s terms, while we are creative, our right brain probably shows the most activity because that’s where most people’s brains process creative functioning. Likewise, most people tend to process language using their left brain.

Example Isochronic Tone for Split Hemisphere Stimulation

1 Minute demo of a split-hemisphere isochronic tone, 10Hz left ear, 20Hz right ear:

 Split hemisphere tones example

The picture above shows an example of an isochronic tones track used for split-hemisphere stimulation. Each channel receives a different beat speed: 10Hz for the left channel and 20Hz for the right channel.

To hear the difference in beat speed, use headphones and flip each side on and off your ear to compare the difference.

These split-hemisphere isochronic tone tracks use a more advanced method of stimulation. Each ear/channel is stimulated by a different beat speed. This enables you to target a specific side of the brain and increase or decrease the brainwave frequency on that side compared to the other.

The brain works cross-wired, with the left brain controlling the right side of the body and the right brain controlling the left. Brainwave stimulation works similarly.

Although a beat sent to one ear will produce a reaction in both sides of the brain, EEG researchers have noticed that the first and strongest response, is seen in the opposite side of the brain.

So, using the example track above, the right ear is sent a 20Hz beat, compared to a 10Hz beat in the left ear. As the right ear receives the higher frequency of beat, this increases the speed of the left brain hemisphere, which can be helpful for people with conditions like ADHD, who are often found to have an abundance of slow-wave activity in the left brain.

Some of the Benefits of Using Split Hemisphere Isochronic Tones

One of the most notable and expected uses of split-hemisphere stimulation is for ADHD. People with ADHD are usually found to have an overabundance of slow-wave brain activity, particularly in the left frontal region.

ADD/ADHD

With my Cognition Enhancer and ADHD Intense Relief tracks, the left brain is stimulated with a higher frequency of beat to help address this imbalance by increasing the frequency of the activity on that side of the brain.

Performance Anxiety

It’s also common for people to experience a hemispheric imbalance before an anxiety-producing event, like a test or public speaking.   With my Public Speaking Anxiety product (also helpful for pre-test/exam anxiety), the left brain is stimulated with a slightly higher frequency.

About Brainwave Frequencies

Brainwave frequencies are generally categorized into five states.  Each state reflects a range of frequencies associated with it.

Brainwave speed is measured in Hertz (Hz) and relates to the number of times they cycle per second. A 5Hz brainwave means cycling at a rate of 5 times per second.

Dominant Brainwave Frequency

If hooked up to an EEG, you would notice that your brain constantly produces brainwaves across the spectrum. So, even when you are deeply asleep, your brain will still be producing some of the faster beta-frequency brainwaves, but your dominant brainwave activity will be in the much lower delta range.

Our brainwave activity reflects how we feel and what we are doing. If slower brainwaves dominate, we can feel tired, sleepy, relaxed, or dreamy. If faster, higher-frequency brainwaves dominate, we can feel more alert, energized, or highly focused.

Brainwave entrainment methods like isochronic tones stimulate and produce more brainwave activity of a specific frequency or range, making that frequency or range more dominant. For example, if you were very stressed, your dominant brainwave frequency would probably be very high.

In that situation, you could reduce stress by listening to slower-speed isochronic tones. These tones would help calm your mind and bring down your stress levels.

Delta Waves

0.5Hz-4Hz – Delta waves are very slow and low in frequency.  You produce the most delta activity during your deepest sleep.  During delta, your body heals and regenerates cells.

Theta Waves

4Hz to 8Hz – Theta waves are also mainly dominant during sleep, in a state of deep relaxation or when drifting in and out of sleep.

Alpha Waves

8Hz to 12Hz – In an alpha state, we are usually very relaxed, calm, and restful.  Increasing alpha waves can help us reduce stress and anxiety. It’s also a mental state where we can stimulate creativity, visualize and improve our ability to absorb and commit information to memory.

Beta Waves

12Hz to 30Hz – Beta is faster and more dominant when consciously awake during the day. We are in beta when we are focused, energized and alert.

Gamma Waves

30Hz+ – Gamma is the fastest in the brainwave range. It has been connected to mental states of high focus, cognitive enhancement and information processing.

Isochronic Tones and Brainwave Entrainment Research Resources

Numerous studies have been conducted over the years into brainwave entrainment, isochronic tones, and binaural beats. You can find some of this research using Google’s Scholar search engine.

The following places are the best and most helpful brainwave entrainment research resources:

White paper commissioned and published by Transparent Corp titled: A COMPREHENSIVE REVIEW OF THE PSYCHOLOGICAL EFFECTS OF BRAINWAVE ENTRAINMENT

Mind Place is a market leader in light and sound stimulation devices and equipment. I own and recommend their flagship mind media system, the Kasina.

Mind Place has a handy support area that focuses mainly on using its products. However, hidden beneath the surface are several helpful brainwave entrainment research resources.

You can download PDFs of Michael Hutchison’s MegaBrain report on their support articles page. Although it’s a bit dated now, Michael’s MegaBrain book was quite revolutionary when it came out in 1986, and it’s an interesting read.

Several other downloadable PDFs related to AVS (Audio Visual Stimulation) research and insight will be found.

The Mind Place Forum mainly focuses on its Light and Sound Meditation Systems, but even if you don’t have any of its products yet, it’s a friendly and helpful place to learn about BWE (brainwave entrainment).

Mind Alive is a site run by David Siever, one of the pioneers in the brainwave entrainment industry. They focus on selling light and sound machines and not supplying individual audio tracks. They have a comprehensive brainwave entrainment research area detailing the various studies they have conducted and been involved with.

Are Isochronic Tones Safe to Use?

Isochronic tones and binaural beats are considered safe technologies. While you may encounter some precautionary warnings online, I have not found any research studies showing that isochronic tones can be problematic for any particular medical condition.

Do isochronic tones cause seizures?

The most common precautionary warning you may find regarding isochronic tones is for people who are epileptic or prone to seizures.   The warning originated regarding photic brainwave entrainment stimulation (which uses a flashing light), not because of audio stimulation.

To quote David Seiver again (one of the pioneers in brainwave entrainment  research from MindAlive.com):

Auditory entrainment (AE) is a safe alternative for people who have a history of seizures or believe that they might be susceptible to seizures using photic entrainment.

Although I’m not aware of any scientific research suggesting isochronic tones can cause a seizure, if you are prone to them or in a group at risk of them and you are concerned about it, I recommend that you consult a doctor or medical professional before using them, just to put your mind at rest.