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About the Artists
The artist collaboration of Debra McEachern and Brent Alan Plain began with the productions of the first 4 DVD’s and 4 CD’s in the Psychyl series released in 2004.
Brent Alan Plain has a diverse background as a multimedia artist, composer, producer and inventor with an eclectic body of work which includes patented internet processes, software designs, web designs, digital video and multimedia releases on CD-ROM and on the internet as well as music releases for film, television, radio and CD. His synectic approach to art, technology and living, culminates in his latest works on the Psychyl projects.
Debra McEachern is a forward-thinking and innovative artist focusing on the endless possibilities presented by digital art. Born in Thunder Bay, Ontario, she holds a HBFA in Fine Arts from Lakehead University and a post-graduate Diploma in 3D Animation from Sheridan College. Her work has been purchased for both corporate and institutional collections with numerous works in private collections in Canada, US and Paris. Ms. McEachern works out of her studio in Toronto, Canada.
Meditation and the Research
In the following material, it is likely you will grow to understand several things. First of all, there is a huge growing culture in North America that is moving to meditation for it's health benefits. Meditation has been embraced by modern medicine and health care professionals and by research scientists as being wholly effective for stress related illnesses, increases in concentration and relaxation, enhanced immune function and healing the body,
mind and spirit. What has been known for millennia has become increasingly more mainstream.
Secondly, the cornerstone of meditation is brainwave regulation. Everyday our brains generate Beta brainwaves during our full active consciousness. During meditation, brainwaves are shifted from a Beta frequency to a Theta frequency. In the Theta state, our mind switches into a calmness that allows for creative thought, and healing. In this culture, we are bombarded by stimulants to the senses from foods, media and fast-paced cultural living with all of its associated pressures. This perpetual daily stimulation overdoses people into an over-extended Beta state of consciousness. The brain is not relieved from this stimulated state of consciousness, and has difficultly switching gears into relaxed states of consciousness where healing can occur. This chronically activated Beta state can lead to stress related illnesses both physically and psychologically.
Studies have shown that the brain is an adaptive organ and will become more proficient at whatever it is asked to do repetitively over time. Meditation increases the brain's capacity
to produce Theta waves and restores
its balance, which gives us a sense of connectedness and well being, among many other health benefits. Meditation, over time and with effort, eventually retrains the brain to adopt a Theta state more often and for longer periods of time. It is this Theta state which has all the health benefits associated with it ... and the health benefits are staggeringly significant.
The Article, "Meditation finally gets credit for health benefits", by Elizabeth Large for the Baltimore Sun, Posted on: Friday January 9, 2004, makes the following points about the merits of meditation. The article states that meditation is being recommended by health-care professionals for all levels of wellness when drugs and other therapies don't work. It tells us that it is being recommended as a treatment/therapy for high blood pressure, attention deficit disorder, to reduce stress, control blood pressure and treat pain. The article refers to Glenn Schiraldi of the faculty of stress management of the University of Maryland's College Park Department of Public and Community Health. "It [meditation] creates changes in the body opposite in every way to stress, and it's intrinsically pleasant to do." If scientists were recording a meditator's EEGs as he/she focuses on his/her breathing, shuts out the outside world and enters a meditative state, they would find that the activity slows down in the areas of the brain that process sensory information. Conscious thought decreases and relaxation increases. The article tells us that the latest science suggests meditation can have long-term health benefits, maybe even life-extending ones. Sophisticated scans have shown it can actually rewire the brain.
In Time Magazine's cover story "Meditation Works", Just Say OM, the article includes this comment:" In 1967 Dr. Herbert Benson, a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, afraid of looking too flaky, waited until late at night to sneak 36 transcendental meditators into his lab to measure their heart rate, blood pressure, skin temperature and rectal temperature. He found that when they meditated, they used 17% less oxygen, lowered their heart rates by three beats a minute and increased their theta brain waves right before sleep. In his 1970s best seller, The Relaxation Response, Benson, who founded the Mind/Body Medical Institute, argued that meditators counteracted the stress-induced fight-or-flight response and achieved a calmer, happier state. "All I've done," says Benson, "is put a biological explanation on techniques that people have been utilizing for thousands of years." Joel Stein, for Time Magazine, August 4, 2003. The article goes on to explain the types of meditation and the benefits, the effects on the brain according to leading researchers, the vast numbers of North Americans flocking to meditate and refers to actress, Goldie Hawn and prominent film director, David Lynch and their daily 20 year plus long-term meditation practices.
Clarity Seminars, which teach meditative stress reduction practices to corporate employees has compiled a growing list of published research studies. The facts speak for themselves. The research shows that a meditative state can reverse the deadly effects of stress in the following ways in this impressive summary of key studies:
Meditation significantly controls high blood pressure at levels comparable to widely used prescription drugs, and without the side effects of drugs.
Hypertension, AMA Medical Journal
Meditators are able to reduce chronic pain by more than 50%, while increasing daily function and markedly improving their moods, even 4 years after the completion of an 8-week training course.
Jon Kabat-Zinn, M.D. Stress Reduction Clinic, University of Massachusetts
75% of long-term insomniacs who have been trained in relaxation and meditation can fall asleep within 20 minutes of going to bed.
Dr. Gregg Jacobs, Psychologist, Harvard
Meditation decreases oxygen consumption, heart rate, respiratory rate, and blood pressure, and increases the intensity of alpha, theta, and delta brain waves-the opposite of the physiological changes that occur during the stress response.
Herbert Benson, M.D. Harvard Medical School
Relaxation therapies are effective in treating chronic pain, and can markedly ease the pain of low back problems, arthritis, and headaches.
National Institutes of Health, 1996
Reducing stress can dramatically reduce heart disease. In a five-year study of heart disease patients, those who learned to manage stress reduced their risk of having another heart attack by 74%, compared with patients receiving medication only. Reducing mental stress also proved more beneficial than getting exercise.
Dr. James Blumenthal, Duke University, 1997
Twenty-eight people with high levels of blocked arteries and high risk of heart attack were placed a program with regular practice of meditation, yoga, a low-fat vegetarian diet, and exercise. Twenty people in the control group received conventional medical care endorsed by the AMA. At the end of a year, most of the experimental group reported that their chest pains had virtually disappeared; for 82% of the patients, arterial clogging had reversed. Those who were sickest at the start showed the most improvement. The control group had an increase in chest pain and arterial blockage worsened. (Follow-up studies suggest that the stress-reduction element may be the most significant factor in achieving these results.)
Dr. Dean Ornish, San Francisco Medical School, University of California, Lancet Journal
Two groups were compared: meditators and non-meditators. The meditators were less anxious and neurotic, more spontaneous, independent, self-confident, empathetic, and less fearful of death.
Atlantic Monthly, May, 1991
Twenty out of twenty-two anxiety-prone people showed a 60% improvement in anxiety levels following an eight week course in meditation.
University of Massachusetts
In a recent study, 77% of individuals with high levels of stress were able to cool down-lower their blood pressure and cholesterol levels-simply by training themselves to stay calm.
Health, October, 1994
Women with severe PMS showed a 58% improvement in their symptoms after five months of daily meditation.
Health, September, 1995
Meditation may slow aging. A study found that people who had been meditating for more than five years were biologically 12 to 15 years younger than
non-meditators.
International Journal of Neuroscience, 1992.
From Health News & Review, 1993, Vol. 3 Issue 2
Meditation and Theta Brain Waves
Meditation is not all that easy. Practitioners of meditation take years to learn to meditate effectively and rewire their brains. For those who have difficulty concentrating, they may not even be able to produce the brain waves effectively to induce a meditative state. During meditation, parts of the brain are switched, and the brain goes into a Theta wave state. It is this Theta state that is responsible for significant health benefits. The more the brain induces a Theta state, the greater the health benefits associated with meditation. The goal then is to induce Theta waves in the brain for more areas of the brain over a longer period of time to realize health benefits both physically and psychologically.
What are Theta Brain Waves and what do they do for us ?
Theta Brain Waves (4 - 8 Hz): are present during deep meditation and dreaming sleep. They are associated with a calm, centered, spiritual state of being and with so-called 'peak experiences' - creative flashes of insight and glimpses of spiritual enlightenment. When a deep realization comes 'out of the blue' and when we experience a deep welling-up of pure emotion, the brain is usually producing theta waves. The theta state is much sought after by those wishing to experience heightened states of consciousness, spiritual awareness and ecstasy. Greater intuition, inspiration, creativity, calm and understanding are all benefits of producing theta waves.
Theta brain waves are associated with the subconscious mind, the layer between the conscious and the unconscious. We hold all our memories, past emotions and experiences in the subconscious, so activating theta brain waves, though often producing a sense of calm and well being, may very occasionally bring up suppressed memories and emotions from the past. Some of these may be deep and painful, but by bringing them to the attention of the conscious mind, they can initiate a healing process within the self.
While the brain is in the Theta state, the individual is experiencing increased ease and relaxation and normally a feeling of well being. Physically, the individual is experiencing an increase in immune function, a lowering of blood pressure and a reduction of pain.
Healthwise, the individual is experiencing a greater health response to medical treatments even more antibodies produced after receiving a vaccine.
Meditation is not the only way to encourage the brain to produce Theta brain waves. Binaural beats can also do this. The science proves that when binaural beats are heard by the brain, the brain will respond by producing Theta brain waves for the duration of the binaural beat stimulation and beyond
What exactly are Binaural Beats?
To explain this science simply, the left and right channel in your stereo system each generates a different frequency of audible waveforms. The difference between the two waveforms is the desired theta brainwave frequency. Our mind perceives this difference and stimulates the brain to produce Theta waves. So meditation is not the only way to stimulate Theta response. Just listening to binaural beats in a regulated environment can induce this state as well.
Sound is one of the most transformative and healing energies on the planet. It can relax us or move us to great heights of emotion. Sound restores balance and harmony to our lives and makes us healthy.
Sound affects us on all levels - physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual. Beneficial sounds have the ability to charge and harmonize us. There are reasons for this. Through sound, it may be possible to apply harmonizing vibrations which will cause the body to become in balance again. In a healthy body, every organ, bone, tissue, and other part is producing balanced frequencies that create a healthy harmonic in the body.
The use of harmonics is found in many Shamanic and mystical traditions, particularly Tibetan Buddhism and Mongolian Shamanism. The chanters use these sounds harness energy forces and for balancing the
chakras. Usually, this sounding is very slow and repetitive, creating a phenomenon known as sonic "entrainment" in which the brain waves of the listener lock in resonance with the brain waves of the chanter. This is one way of creating altered states - by altering our brain waves.
Binaural Beat Frequencies work on the same principle, creating a frequency that entrains your brain waves. Brain researchers and medical practitioners have divided brainwave activity into four levels:
Beta - Full consciousness
Alpha - Falling asleep at night, awakening in the morning, hypnosis and meditation
Theta - Early stages of sleep, deep hypnosis and deep meditation
Delta - Full sleep to deepest sleep
Rather than using multiple brainwave frequencies within the audio track, each of the Psychyl releases, focuses on a specific brainwave frequency in the theta range. Combining this with music and visual art harmonized to the specific theta frequency further enhances the effectiveness of meditating with Psychyl. Research done by Dr. Thomas Budzynski, concluded that the use of multiple binaural beats did not result in multiple-frequency entrainment. The brain tends to "pick one" and stick with it.
Consciousness Management With Binaural Beats
The existence of the phenomenon of binaural beats is well documented (Oster, 1973), and the application of binaural-beat stimulation as a consciousness management technique has been scientifically researched (Atwater, 1988; Hutchison, 1986; Monroe, 1982). The principle of using sensory stimuli to entrain specific cortical rhythms through the frequency-following response is well documented
(Gerken, Moushegian, Stillman, & Rupert, 1975; Neher, 1961; Sohmer, Pratt, &
Kinarti, 1977; Stillman, Crow, & Moushegian, 1978; Yaguchi, & Iwahara, 1976). Binaural beats are auditory brainstem responses which originate in the superior olivary nucleus of each hemisphere. They result from the interaction of two different auditory impulses, originating in opposite ears, below 1000 Hz and which differ in frequency between one and 30 Hz
(Oster, 1973). For example, if a pure tone of 400 Hz is presented to the right ear and a pure tone of 410 Hz is presented simultaneously to the left ear, an amplitude modulated standing wave of 10 Hz, the difference between the two tones, is experienced as the two wave forms mesh in and out of phase within the superior olivary nuclei. This binaural beat is not heard in the ordinary sense of the word (the human range of hearing is from 20-20,000 Hz). It is perceived as an auditory beat and theoretically can be used to entrain specific neural rhythms through the frequency-following response
(FFR)--the tendency for cortical potentials to entrain to or resonate at the frequency of an external stimulus. Thus, it is theoretically possible to utilize a specific binaural-beat frequency as a consciousness management technique to entrain a specific cortical rhythm (Brainwave). Brainwaves are measured using electroencephalography (EEG). The normal human EEG has a frequency range from 0.5 Hertz (Hz) to 30 Hz which is usually subdivided into four or five bands:
Beta Waves
14 Hertz (abbreviated hz, frequency measured in cycles per second) - 100 Hz
These waves are the most dominant. This is the mental state the average individual generally functions in on a day to day basis. From focusing on daily issues to holding a conversation.
Alpha Waves
8 Hz - 13 Hz
A relaxed or passive state best achieved by closing your eyes and slowing down brain wave activity. Once you are in this state, alpha waves become dominant. In this state we become calm and begin to focus inward. The alpha state is extremely satisfying and nurturing. It is important to attain an alpha or neutral state at least once a day to reduce your unwanted stress level.
Theta Waves
4 Hz - 8 Hz
Once we sink below alpha level waves, we reach theta. An elusive euphoric and mysterious state best associated with deep meditation. Many people find it hard to reach and maintain this level. Mind Machines help you reach this state faster. With practice it also becomes easier to maintain without falling asleep. This state is much like being on the edge of sleep and wakefulness. In this state you may have many reveries (mental images) or thoughts pour forth. Much of our unconscious becomes revealed. This state is most conducive to hypnotic trance, placing mental suggestions, accelerating learning, facilitating healing and implementing peak performance techniques.
Delta Waves
Below 4 Hz
For most people, once were in this state we are either asleep or unconscious. In this level we produce large quantities of healing growth hormone which both strengthens and replenishes us. There is growing evidence which suggests that it is possible to attain this state and maintain consciousness. Well practiced (at least 20 yrs.) Zen Buddhist monk masters are said to be able to do just this, even while engaged in everyday affairs! With the help of Mind Machines and practice, it is possible for an individual to benefit from this state and learn to attain it in significantly less time than an accomplished Zen monk.
Reaching Theta with Mantra,
Yantra, Music and Nature
Certain sounds can put us in resonance with frequencies that are within the alpha or theta brain wave range, 7 to 12 Hz, and 4 to 7 Hz, respectively. Meditative sounds called a Mantra is a repetitive sound which encourages this entrainment. To stimulate more areas of the brain to this entrainment, Yantra images can be used. Yantra images are the visual counterpart to a Mantra. These are symmetrical images that the meditator will focus on to stimulate the brain to a Theta state while using a Mantra. In principle, this engages more of the brain in the altering of the consciousness and the production of Theta brain waves.
Many of the environmental sounds seem to resonate to this spectrum of sound as well, particularly to a frequency called the Schumann resonance, 7.83 Hz, which is the resonant frequency of the planet.
Music has been long recognized as a means of consciousness management. Music can stimulate Beta activity to a point where we want to get up and dance, or sing, or clap along. Music can also help to induce Alpha and Theta states which help us to relax, as with the famous Brahm's Lullaby. Even before we are born, our brains are responding to sounds (harsh and soft) and corresponding brainwave activity is induced. Studies have shown music by Mozart can actually stimulate learning in children. It's obvious that music can resonate to induce various brainwaves. Perhaps composers are subconsciously striving for this when creating music. This is the essence of emotional response in music. The goal of most artists is to induce an emotional response from their audience. Next to Nature, perhaps music was the first application of brainwave stimulation.
A Brief Summary
Meditation, embraced throughout our culture, is about quietly training the brain to output Theta brain waves and enjoy all the associated health benefits. Health benefits, psychological benefits, learning benefits and spiritual benefits are all a by-product of Theta brain waves. Meditation is not the only way to have the brain exercise its output of Theta brain waves. Binaural beat science when added to music can also facilitate this state. Even more beneficial is the integration of images for concentration in a Yantra
form. A visual symmetrical image with a focal point. This visual addition
engages the occipital cortex of the brain and offers additional Theta
stimulation by engaging more areas of the brain to increase its overall Theta
wave response. It should be noted that the brain is outputting different brain
waves in different portions of the brain all the time. The goal is to achieve a
greater level of Theta response in all areas of the brain. Entrainment through
binaural beat stimulation at a Theta frequency can increase harmony of both
hemispheres as the brain synchronizes its brain wave patterns. This can lead to
a feeling of calm, quiet stability and harmony.
When our brains, through our daily living, are over-stimulated to excess Beta wave production, there may be a reduced ability to participate in meditation successfully at first. The brain has adapted to stimulation and finds it most easy to output Beta waves, not switching to allow for relaxation, feelings of calm, contentment and sleep. The
"Psychyl" series of DVDs addresses this problem by inducing a Theta response and exercising the brain to re-adapt to Theta brain wave output.
This process is called entrainment.
The "Psychyl" DVDs are designed to offer this benefit. db have gone beyond one form of theta brainwave stimulation. They have integrated, Mantra & Yantra meditation techniques, Music, Art, and Binaural Beats in a unique way to help entrain more areas of the brain to a Theta state of consciousness. By playing the DVD and listening and watching, Theta waves are being produced in the brain. The more the DVD is watched, the easier it is to slip into a Theta state. In fact the brain is being exercised to produce Theta waves for the duration of watching the
DVD, while it is responding to the music embedded with Binaural Beats and observing the slowly evolving Yantra like images.
Use the Psychyl DVDs to help with relaxation, concentration, learning, sleep and promote health and healing and to train the mind to meditate more easily.
Additional Articles (copyrights by the respective parties)
WASHINGTON - If you've forgotten a few things lately, a new study offers an excuse — stress impairs memory and learning.
Scientists gave volunteers cortisol, a hormone released during stress. Participants exposed to it were less able to remember things they had recently learned.
Researchers say their findings show why people quickly forget things they learned while cramming for exams. This study also may cast doubt on testimony given in court or in other stressful situations.
Dominique de Quervain of the University of Zurich in Switzerland and colleagues at the University of California at Irvine looked at 18 women and the same number of men, aged 20 to 40.
They asked them to look at 60 German nouns for four seconds each and memorize them. The volunteers were tested for free recall by writing down as many words as they could remember. Researchers also asked whether participants could recognize the nouns they had learned on a longer list. These were done immediately after memorizing the list or one day later.
The participants were then given tablets of cortisone, which would simulate the effects of stress in people.
The tablets, which the body processes into cortisol, did not affect the volunteers' ability to recall in a test given immediately after memorization. And when given immediately before the 24-hour-later test, the tablets had no effect on recognition.
But they did impair recall a day later, the researchers found.
Based on their findings, scientists say that high glucocorticoid levels may bring about the inability to retrieve information in such stressful situations as exams, job interviews, combat and courtroom testimony.
The study was published in the journal Nature Neuroscience.
Written by CBC News Online staff
Dealing With Stress On The Job
MONTREAL - The Quebec Mental Illness Foundation says workplace stress is costing
businesses a lot of money.
The foundation estimates that businesses in Quebec lose $4 billion per year
because of employees who are off work because of mental illness. Rates of
depression have been rising among adults: 30 per cent over the last 10 years.
The problem is getting worse: people are working more and more is expected of
them. The Quebec Mental Illness Foundation wants to work with employers to help
identify the problem early. The foundation has offered to train managers and
offer seminars for employees to help deal with stress and depression on the job.
So far, a few companies have signed on to the program, including Hydro Québec.
The foundation wants more companies to sign on. "The aim of the program is to go
over: What is a depression? How does it start? How is it cured? How can you
detect from yourself or with a colleague that a depression could be coming and
how could you react to it?," says Martin Tremblay, a psychiatrist who helped
develop the program.
They say if this problem is not dealt with by 2020, depression will be second
only to heart disease as the most prevalent cause of workplace disability.
Workplace stress:
· In Canada, it is estimated that one in five will suffer from a mental illness
in their lifetime. (Source: Canadian Health Network, 1999)
· Currently, 25-30% of absenteeism at work is attributable to one form or
another of mental illness. (Source: L'Actualité, May 1, 2001)
· Nearly 2.7 million Canadian workers have accumulated a loss of productivity
exceeding 155,000 person-years, representing a total of $6.02 billion. (Source:
Canadian Press, June 4, 2001, according to a study by Health Canada)
A Pilot Study Of
EEG Entrainment As A Sleep Aid
Clinton J.G. Marquardt, Lisa L. Orr, Mary
Perugini, Dragoljub Radonjic Sleep Disorders Centre, Royal Ottawa Hospital,
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
This was a study using Dr. Thompson's Delta Sleep System
Introduction:
An interest in the effectiveness of audio-stimulation in entraining the EEG to
desired frequencies has developed in recent years1. The use of EEG entrainment
as a therapeutic intervention for such disorders as bruxism2, myofascial
pain-dysfunction syndrome2 and for stroke rehabilitation3 has proven beneficial.
It was hypothesized that audio-stimulation may be used as a sleep aid for
insomniacs. More specifically, audio-stimulation may be used to entrain the EEG
of poor sleepers to demonstrate a higher incidence of the delta bandwidth thus
increasing the quality of sleep.
Method:
Eight chronic insomniacs without clinically significant sleep apnea and PLMs
were polysomnographically monitored during their normal sleep phase.
Audio-stimulation in the form of music was presented through two loud-speakers
placed laterally, beside the head, and 45 cm from each ear. The volume of the
music was set such that it did not exceed 60 decibels for more than 3 seconds
since the mean subjective awakening threshold throughout sleep for
psychophysiological insomniacs is 76.8 +/- 9.2 decibels4. The music employed as
audio-stimulation was designed by Dr. J. Thompson5, to increase the incidence of
delta EEG (0.5 - 3.99 Hz). The music was track #2 from the Brainwave Suite™
package, featured on CD #4 and was 20 minutes long. According to Thompson5, the
music employs stereophonics to deliver two different frequency bandwidths to
each ear and EEG entrainment should only occur when the music is presented
stereophonically and not monophonically. Music was presented to participants
stereophonically for 15 minutes at one minute after the appearance of the first
sleep spindle indicating stage two sleep and this was directly followed by five
minutes of monophonic music. During their second entrance to stage two sleep,
five of the eight participants were exposed to a second presentation of music.
The second entrance of stage two was separated from the first episode of stage
two sleep by at least three minutes of any other stage of sleep or by one minute
of wakefulness. This presentation was also at one minute after the first sleep
spindle and began with five minutes of monophonic music followed directly by 15
minutes of stereophonic music. The EEG was sampled for one minute, three times
during each presentation and analyzed using period amplitude analysis6. During
the first presentation the EEG was sampled one minute prior to presenting the
music, at 10 min and 30s into the stereophonic music and during the last minute
of monophonic music. During the second presentation of the music the EEG was
sampled one minute prior to presenting the music, at four minutes into the
monophonic music and again during the last minute of stereophonic music.
Subjective ratings of sleep quality were also obtained from each subject.
Subjects indicated whether they heard the music and whether they found the music
pleasant or aversive. The quality of sleep was rated on a scale of 1(poor),
5.5(moderate) to 10(excellent). The quality of sleep in comparison to the
quality of the last week's sleep was rated on a scale of 1(worse), 5.5 (same) to
10 (much better).
Results:
Three repeated measures ANOVAs, full-wave, half-wave and first derivative
analyses, comparing the incidence of the delta bandwidth were performed on each
set of three EEG samples. No significant differences were found in the
incidences of delta during the first presentation of the music. The full-wave
ANOVA of the data from the second presentation demonstrated a significant
difference (F(4, 10)=7.762, p=.0134). Post-hoc Scheffe analyses revealed that
(1) the incidence of delta during the monophonic music (mean=55.4%) was greater
than that found prior to the presentation of the monophonic music (mean=39.6%)
(F(4, 10)=6.483, p<.05) and (2) that the incidence of delta during the
stereophonic music (mean=53.6%) (F(4, 10)=5.073, p<.05) was greater than that
found prior to the presentation of the monophonic music (39.6%). The half-wave
ANOVA of the data from the second presentation also demonstrated a significant
difference (F(4, 10)=21.112), p=.0006. This post-hoc Scheffe analyses supported
the post-hoc full-wave analyses, (1) the incidence of delta during the
monophonic music (mean=60.3%) was greater than the incidence of delta before the
presentation of the monophonic music (mean=47.4%) (F(4, 10)=15.265, p<.05) and
(2) the incidence of delta during the stereophonic music (mean=60.9%) (F(4,
10)=16.383, p<.05) was greater than the incidence of delta prior to the
presentation of the monophonic music (mean=39.6%). The first derivative ANOVA
did not demonstrate any significant differences. Results of the subjective
ratings indicate that all but one of the eight participants heard the music and
all but two of the participants found the music pleasant. The mean quality of
sleep was 7.5 (range: 7-10) and the mean quality of sleep comparison rating was
6.39 (range: 5-8).
Discussion:
Our results indicate that delta EEG entrainment occurred as a result of the
music being presented during sleep. The entrainment response was not
stereophonic specific, it occurred with the monophonic and stereophonic music.
Significant increases in the incidence of delta in the EEG were found only in
the data recorded during the second presentation of the music. This increase in
delta during the second music presentation was not confounded with the passage
of time nor was it confounded with naturally occurring increases in delta
associated with deep sleep; there were no differences between the incidences of
delta during the monophonic and the stereophonic music. The lack of any
significant differences in the data recorded during the first presentation of
the music suggests that the EEG of the first transition from wakefulness to
sleep is less malleable perhaps due to higher levels of cortical activity
inhibiting relaxation. The subjective rating of a higher than moderate sleep
quality, coupled with the slightly better than last week's sleep quality rating
seem to suggest that participants found the music beneficial in enhancing sleep
quality.
1) Ohatrian, G., Peterson, M., & Lazarte, J. Responses to clicks from the human
brain: Some depth electrographic observations. Electroencephalography and
Clinical Neurophysiology, 1960, 12: 479-489.
2) Manns, A, Miralles, R., & Adrian, H. The application of audiostimulation and
electromyographic biofeedback to bruxism and myofascial pain-syndrome. Oral
Surgery, 1981, 52(3): 247-252.
3) Rozelle, G., & Budzynski, T. Neurotherapy for stroke rehabilitation: A single
case study. Biofeedback and Self-Regulation, 1995, 20(3): 211-228.
4) Haynes, S, Fitzgerald, S., Shute, & O'Meary, M. Responses of
psychophysiologic and subjective insomniacs to auditory stimuli during sleep: A
replication and extension. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 1985, 94: 338-345.
5) Thompson, J. Personal communication, October, 1996.
6) Hoffmann, R., Moffitt, A., Shearer, J. Sussman, P., & Wells, R. Conceptual
and methodological considerations towards the development of computer-controlled
research on the electrophysiology of sleep. Waking and Sleeping, 1979, 3: 1-16.
California Institute of Human Science, 701 Garden View Court, Encinitas, CA,
92024.
The Relaxation Company™, 20 Lumbar Road, Rosyln, NY.
Current Claim:
EEG entrainment by audio-stimulation can enhance subjective sleep quality.
© 2000, Royal Ottawa Health Care Group
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