How Sound Saved Sanity

When I was about 13 years young I started showing major attention deficits. I could not focus, I could not follow one train of thought because my train was moving over every track too fast. Music seemed to be the only thing that would keep my focus for hours.

The doctor decided to put me on medication. Amphetamines... It helped to some degree; gave me motivation and energy but I still lacked focus. That was when I decided to tune in to something that changed my life in an amazing way… They're called "Binaural Beats"

In the most simplest explanation, two tones at slightly different frequencies are played in different ears with headphones. The closeness in wavelength creates an audible "beat" that actually is not there. Your brain then syncs with this beat in rhythm (in theory) and you have manipulated your brainwaves to a desired frequency.

Here's the breakdown:
How do these frequencies work?
All electrical equipment runs at certain frequencies. Our brain is a sophisticated piece of electrical equipment that also runs and gives off frequencies. These frequencies are known as brainwaves and are measured in Hertz (Hz). When the body is in a state of activity or stress, the speed of our brainwaves increase, The speed decreases when we are just kicking back at home. This is basically how binaural beats work, except it's focus is stimulating the brain.
When we are totally awake, our brains run at somewhere between 20-200Hz. When the brain is relaxed but still aware, this is known as the Beta State. Here, brainwaves run at around 20-25Hz. When we are in a deep state of relaxation the brain runs at approximately 8-10Hz. This is the Alpha State. When you're "dead-to-the-world" recovering while you sleep, the brain runs at approximately 4Hz, known as the Delta State.
Binaural beats lead the brain to a desired state by sending slightly different tones to each ear through a stereo signal. That doesn't mean go blast 200hz in you're ear hoping to save money on coffee every morning. It's actually the Difference between the two tones your brain trains to. So, as an example, if we send 200Hz to the left ear and 220Hz to the right ear, the brainwaves respond by vibrating at the difference between the two tones, which in this case is 20hz. This is called ‘Frequency Following Response.’
After learning this I gave it a shot. I was annoyed, at first, until the sounds faded like white noise. For once my subconscious was entertained by this strange rhythm enough for me to keep my conscious thoughts on one track...