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Comment by skeledrew | Hacker News Reader

> So finding ways to help the brain clean itself — perhaps by inducing those slow electrical waves — might prevent a wide array of disorders.

Even before getting to the end this had me thinking of binaural beats. Back in college there was a beat that I would use whenever I was super tired and had a lot to do, and it'd help me refresh via a quick 20m nap (sometimes the nap itself wasn't even needed; just to let my mind be taken by the beat for the duration). If it's the case that a part of the effect is to trigger a "deep clean" (I've wondered on and off what's really happening), then this just may become a way to reduce said disorders...

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IIRC they ware selling tracks that were supposed to make you smart or calm etc. I torrented the most expensive one which the legend said it costs 1000$ and makes you smart, didn't change a thing but maybe because I didn't pay for it :)

I remember those vividly. We were on a school trip, and some of the girls heard about it and wanted to try the Speed track (as in the drug). It certainly altered their consciousness, one of them even fainted. We tried to keep it a secret from the teacher, but it eventually got out, and I think all of us on that trip got confronted by the teacher during parent–teacher conferences.

We were all like 14, so we had no idea what Speed actually was like. Seemed almost real for a minute there, but of course it's more akin to hypnosis than actual brain alteration.

I remember trying a bunch of these in middle school as well. They really just gave me a headache.

Binaural beats is a phenomenon though, not a company, so no need to pay for anything ;). Of course there will be those creating tracks or generators with their "special sauce" and charging for it. Kinda like selling shell necklaces so you don't have to gather the shells and make one yourself.

You saved 1k$ and that looks quite smart to me. So... success?

could you find the exact one?

The beat frequency? Not really; I used an app called Gnaural (on Android, hasn't been updated in years), and just selected the "Power nap" profile. It'll be theta or delta though, maybe a combination.

Looking at the beatfreq values in the XML source of the preset [1], it's indeed combination of 4 to 11 Hz beats (mostly theta) and 2 Hz (delta).

[1] https://sourceforge.net/projects/gnaural/files/Presets/Minds...

Oh nice, thanks. I didn't think to check the source. Been thinking to update the app myself though as it's not installing on my current device, and I'd like to explore BBs more. I've also found "Energize", "Problem resolver", "Wakeup", "Rain shower" and "Babbling brook" to be useful. The rest by comparison are pretty meh, or maybe I just didn't find a task match.

There are lots of them on YouTube now. I listen to one most nights. Just search for “sleep” and “binaural beats.

I'm sure there are differences in their effectiveness.

Based on my limited knowledge the sound frequencies attempt to put the brain into theta or delta frequencies and does this by creating a ghost signal (left ear 100hz - right 106hz gives a 6hz theta wave).

Dreamachines work similarly (but mono) by creating a flickering light at set frequencies.

I'm sure tactile vibrations or pulses could have some effect also.

I made this a few years ago after getting into Hemi Sync tapes to test out what different tones feel like.

https://numtel.github.io/binaural-playground/

How would audial waves affect the brain as electrical waves? I don't think that's possible. I'm figuring they'd need to directly take effect in the brain tissue itself to clean it.

Potentially via the ear in the same way that a microphone translates sound waves (vibrations in the air) into electrical signals. Just a guess. Seems like there must be signal-flow from from the ear to the brain that involves electricity and the recreation of the signal to be processed by the brain.

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