Screenshot 2020-07-19 07.56.54 – Nadja Lind: Frequency Fun

You can change! Thanks to neuroplasticity (the brain's endless and amazing capacity to change, adapt, and reorganize itself), the more frequently you enter a state, the easier you are able to go back to it. Brainwave entrainment lets your brain calm down or speed up, depending on your needs. Let’s look at the various brainwave frequencies and states.

DELTA (0.5 to 2 Hz)
Delta brainwaves are predominant during dreamless sleep, the phase of the dream cycle also known as "deep wave sleep." Deep wave sleep is all about growth and preservation of health: the immune system gets strengthened and muscles and tissues are mended. So, too little time spent in this state can be damaging, as the body refills its energy reservoir during this phase. Trained meditators and healers often display stronger delta waves than the standard population during sessions, and often report states of no sensation (even awareness of our bodies can disappear) and deep spiritual connection. Delta brainwaves are also considered our connection to intuition and the “seat” of all unconscious processes. If they naturally abound while we are awake, they can make us really empathetic as well as interfere with our cognitive tasks and emotional processing.

THETA (3 to 7 Hz)
Theta brainwaves are naturally occurring during the hypnagogic state (pre-sleep), REM sleep, and often predominate during deep meditation and healing states of visualization, hypnosis, trance, and psychonautic exploration. This brainwave bandwidth is typical when awareness of the information coming in through our physical senses decreases, as we turn our attention inwards and our body rhythms (heart and breathing rates) slow down. It’s the gate to our buried memories, unresolved issues, and emotional trauma, and reviewing this material can sometimes be unpleasant as we might access and feel our raw emotion (previously supressed). Even though REM sleep already serves that purpose, it is important to include deep relaxation exercises in our routines, so healing and restoration of mind can occur. Theta brainwaves are related to insight, visualization, and deep states of meditation, although they can also make you drowsy and be responsible for distractibility, moodiness, and lack of focus.

ALPHA (8 to 13 Hz)
Serotonin is released in higher quantities during alpha brainwave states, so there’s a feel-good effect to them—our bodies and minds relax and our emotions are in balance. They are considered a reliable marker for cognitive efficiency and often decrease with aging, which is why they’re tackled in most brain-brightening neurofeedback protocols. Their amplitude naturally increases when we go idle, close our eyes, watch a film, or daydream, so they are associated with states of relaxed awareness and light meditation. Alpha waves are also prominent in peak performance states and are even said to be “the artist brainwaves,” so alpha states are usually associated with a mix of creativity and presence. We’re in alpha when our imagination sparks, when we can enjoy our attention being placed on the inner and outer worlds at once, find alternatives and solutions to problems old and new, even experience a sense of increased capacity, deep belonging, and flow. Plus we need a strong alpha in order to remember what happens during states of trance, deep meditation, and dream sleep, so they’re fundamental to our spiritual growth. However, having too many of them can also make you spacey, inattentive, even depressed.

BETA (14 to 25 Hz)
Beta brainwaves are produced when we focus our attention on the external world, feel more positive, energetic, goal-oriented, or are immersed in tasks needing our intellect and linear cognitive abilities, such as reading and analyzing this text, categorizing, or planning. Beta states makes us feel more social and witty (they’re related to high speed thinking and processing), and are all about physical and mental readiness, logic, concentration, and focus. Spending time in beta can lead to a really enjoyable mix of anticipation and determination, but it’s also where our business and critical self arise. High beta frequencies are as related to excitement as they are to body tension, high arousal, nervousness, rumination, insomnia, addiction, fear, and post traumatic stress disorder.

[source: iAwakeTechnologies.com]