Research
Do Binaural Beats Work? What the Research Shows
The binaural beats research in one place, including the results that cut against the hype, and the ones that cut against us. Every figure was checked against its primary source.
Last verified · 6 sources
Key statistics
- Two meta-analyses report a medium pooled benefit (g = 0.45 and g = 0.40).
- The largest test, 1,000 people at home, found binaural beats lowered reasoning scores by about 5 to 7 points.
- Only 5 of 14 EEG studies support the idea that binaural beats entrain brainwaves.
- Beats played before a task did better than beats played only during it.
- 40 Hz beats narrowed attention in a 36-person lab study.
- 5.3% of 30,896 drug survey respondents had used binaural beats to alter their state, mostly to relax or sleep.
A binaural beat is an illusion. Play a 200 Hz tone in your left ear and a 214 Hz tone in your right, and you hear a soft pulse at the 14 Hz difference, a tone that exists only inside your head. The claim built on top of it is that the brain falls into step with that pulse, so a slow beat calms you and a faster one sharpens concentration. Here is what the studies found when they tested that.
Meta-analyses
What the pooled studies say
Two meta-analyses found a medium pooled benefit from binaural beats: g = 0.45 across 22 studies of memory, attention, anxiety and pain (Garcia-Argibay et al., 2019), and g = 0.40 across 15 studies of memory and attention, with conflicting results for theta and beta frequencies (Basu & Banerjee, 2023).
Two meta-analyses have pooled the controlled studies. The 2019 one combined 22 studies and 35 effect sizes covering memory, attention, anxiety and pain, and found a medium benefit. The 2023 one kept only memory and attention: 15 studies, 31 effect sizes, and a similar medium benefit.
That is the strongest evidence in favor of binaural beats, and it comes with caveats the authors state themselves. The 2023 review found conflicting results for theta and beta, the frequencies most often sold for focus, and called for studies with more robust designs. The 2019 review found the effect depends on the frequency used, how long people listened and when. A pooled average of small studies can also be inflated if null results went unpublished; we couldn't check either paper's publication bias analysis, because neither is open access.
Pooled effect of binaural beats
Sources: Garcia-Argibay et al. (2019), Psychological Research; Basu & Banerjee (2023), Psychological Research
Largest study
The 1,000-person test that found the opposite
In a study of 1,000 people tested at home (920 analyzed), listening to 5 Hz or 15 Hz binaural beats lowered reasoning test scores by about 5 to 7 percentage points, whatever participants were told the sounds would do; silence, classical music and a pure tone had no significant effect (Klichowski et al., 2023).
In 2023, researchers in Poznań tested 1,000 adults at home, on their own devices, the way most people actually use binaural beats. Everyone took a reasoning test in two halves. The first half was a baseline with no sound played; for the second, people put on headphones and heard binaural beats, silence, classical music or a steady tone. 920 people met the bar for analysis (at least 4 of 18 baseline answers right).
Binaural beats were the only sound that changed anything, and they made scores worse. In the experiment with comparison groups, 5 Hz beats cost 6.5 and 6.0 percentage points on the two tests, and 15 Hz beats cost 5.1 and 7.1. In a separate experiment, 15 Hz beats lowered scores whether people were told the sounds would help their brain or that they were neutral, so expectations don't explain it.
This is one study, with one kind of task, and the authors call for research into what causes the drop. But it is large, with 920 people analyzed, and it tested listening at home rather than in a lab.
Change in reasoning score while listening
Mechanism
Do binaural beats change brainwaves?
Of 14 EEG studies testing whether binaural beats pull brain activity toward the beat frequency, 5 supported it, 8 contradicted it and 1 was mixed (Ingendoh et al., 2023).
The idea that a 10 Hz beat produces 10 Hz brain activity is called the brainwave entrainment hypothesis, and almost every product claim rests on it. A 2023 systematic review gathered every published study that tested it directly with EEG.
More studies contradicted it than supported it. The reviewers add that the studies differed so much in how they played the beats and analyzed the EEG that they are hard to compare at all, and they call for standard methods before anyone draws firm conclusions.
EEG studies on binaural beats, by outcome
- 5 supported entrainment
- 8 contradicted it
- 1 mixed
Source: Ingendoh et al. (2023), PLOS ONE
How they're used
Timing, duration and masking
In a 2019 meta-analysis, binaural beats played before a task, or before and during it, worked better than beats played only during the task, longer exposure helped, and beats hidden under white or pink noise worked about as well as beats on their own (Garcia-Argibay et al., 2019).
The 2019 meta-analysis also asked what made the effect bigger or smaller. Beats played before a task, or before and during it, did better than beats played only while working. Longer listening helped. And beats mixed under white or pink noise worked about as well as bare tones, so a product doesn't need to sound like a test signal for the beats to be there.
We report the direction only. The size of each of these differences is in the paper's tables, which are behind a paywall, so we haven't quoted numbers we couldn't check.
Source: Garcia-Argibay et al. (2019), Psychological Research
Attention
A small positive lab result
In 36 students, 40 Hz binaural beats narrowed attention: the head start for seeing the whole picture before its parts shrank from 57 ms to 36 ms, while the ability to ignore distracting detail did not change (Colzato et al., 2017).
One of the most cited positive studies gave 36 university students either 40 Hz binaural beats or a plain 340 Hz tone for 3 minutes before and during a task that measures how widely you spread your attention. People normally spot a large shape faster than the small shapes it is made of. With the beats, that head start shrank, which the authors read as a narrower spotlight of attention.
Two limits: 18 people per group is small, and the ability to ignore distracting detail did not change. A 40 Hz beat also sits above the roughly 1 to 30 Hz range where binaural beats are perceived as a beat at all, according to the 2023 EEG review.
Head start for the whole shape over its parts
Usage
Who uses binaural beats, and why
In the Global Drug Survey 2021 (30,896 responses from 22 countries), 5.3% of respondents had used binaural beats to try to change their state of mind; 72.2% of them did so to relax or fall asleep (Barratt et al., 2022).
The best usage data comes from an unlikely place: the Global Drug Survey, which in 2021 asked about "digital drugs" in 11 languages. 5.3% of respondents had used binaural beats to try to change how they felt. Their median age was 27, and most listened through video streaming sites on their phones.
Most wanted something ordinary: to relax, sleep or shift their mood. A minority were chasing a drug-like effect. These were people answering a survey about drug use, so the shares describe them rather than the general public, but it is the largest look at real-world use we found.
Why respondents used binaural beats
Method
How these were checked
Every figure was checked against the paper itself. Three of the studies are open access and were read in full; for the two paywalled meta-analyses, we used only what the publisher's abstract states. Citation details were confirmed through Crossref. Where press coverage disagreed with a paper, the paper won: the home study is reported as both 1,000 and 920 people, and both are right (1,000 tested, 920 analyzed).
Claims we left out on purpose:
- "Binaural beats reduce anxiety by 26%." Repeated on blogs; we couldn't trace it to any study.
- "Effective in 87% of anxiety studies." From a student review that counts studies for and against, which says much less than a pooled effect size.
- "Beta beats for focus, theta for creativity." The mapping comes from EEG frequency bands, not from studies showing each beat produces that state. The memory and attention meta-analysis found conflicting results for exactly these frequencies.
- Figures from companies that sell binaural audio, unless they point to a paper we could read.
Takeaways
What this means if you use them
The honest summary is unsettled. Pooled controlled studies lean positive. The mechanism usually given for them is not well supported. And the one large test of how people actually use them at home found a cost, not a boost. If binaural beats help you, the research doesn't rule that out; if you've never noticed them doing anything, the research doesn't say you're missing something.
Underlay.fm includes an optional binaural layer in Pro sessions, between 3 and 17 Hz depending on the work mode and mood, mixed under the texture. We don't claim it improves focus, and given the home study, you can switch it off in the session controls and compare for yourself. The core of Underlay.fm is the sound with nothing to follow: no melody, no lyrics, no beat. For the evidence behind that, see the research on music, lyrics and attention.
Common questions
Do binaural beats work?+
The evidence points both ways. Two meta-analyses of controlled studies found a medium pooled benefit (g = 0.45 across 22 studies, g = 0.40 across 15). But only 5 of 14 EEG studies found that they change brain activity the way they are said to, and the largest study, 1,000 people at home, found they made reasoning scores worse.
Do binaural beats help you focus or study?+
Not reliably. A 2023 meta-analysis of memory and attention studies found a medium pooled benefit (g = 0.40) but conflicting results for the theta and beta frequencies usually sold for studying. In the largest test of home use, people solved fewer reasoning problems while listening to binaural beats than in silence or with classical music.
What frequency of binaural beats is best for focus?+
No frequency has been shown to be best. The 2023 meta-analysis found conflicting results for both theta and beta. In the 1,000-person home study, a 5 Hz (theta) and a 15 Hz (beta) beat lowered scores by about the same amount. Binaural beats are only heard at all between about 1 and 30 Hz.
Can binaural beats make you worse at tasks?+
One large study says yes. People who heard 5 Hz or 15 Hz binaural beats during the second half of a reasoning test scored about 5 to 7 percentage points lower than in the first half, even when told the sounds were neutral. People who heard silence, classical music or a steady tone showed no significant change. The authors say the cause still needs research.
Do binaural beats work without headphones?+
No. A binaural beat only exists when each ear hears its own tone, for example 200 Hz in the left ear and 214 Hz in the right, and the brain registers the 14 Hz difference. Through speakers the two tones mix in the air before they reach you, so there is no binaural beat to hear.
Are binaural beats a "digital drug"?+
Some people use them that way, but rarely. In the Global Drug Survey 2021, 5.3% of 30,896 respondents had used binaural beats to try to change their state of mind. Most did it to relax or fall asleep (72.2%); 11.7% were trying to get an effect like other drugs. These were people answering a survey about drug use, not a cross-section of the public.
Do binaural beats help with anxiety?+
Possibly, but the best summary can't separate it out. The 2019 meta-analysis included anxiety studies and its authors conclude binaural beats reduce anxiety, but its headline effect (g = 0.45) pools anxiety with memory, attention and pain. We couldn't verify a separate anxiety figure from the paper, so we don't quote one.
Sources
- Barratt, M. J., Maddox, A., Smith, N., Davis, J. L., Goold, L., Winstock, A. R., & Ferris, J. A. (2022). Who uses digital drugs? An international survey of 'binaural beat' consumers. Drug and Alcohol Review, 41(5), 1126 to 1130. doi:10.1111/dar.13464
- Garcia-Argibay, M., Santed, M. A., & Reales, J. M. (2019). Efficacy of binaural auditory beats in cognition, anxiety, and pain perception: a meta-analysis. Psychological Research, 83(2), 357 to 372. doi:10.1007/s00426-018-1066-8
- Basu, S., & Banerjee, B. (2023). Potential of binaural beats intervention for improving memory and attention: insights from meta-analysis and systematic review. Psychological Research, 87(4), 951 to 963. doi:10.1007/s00426-022-01706-7
- Ingendoh, R. M., Posny, E. S., & Heine, A. (2023). Binaural beats to entrain the brain? A systematic review of the effects of binaural beat stimulation on brain oscillatory activity, and the implications for psychological research and intervention. PLOS ONE, 18(5), e0286023. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0286023
- Klichowski, M., Wicher, A., Kruszwicka, A., & Golebiewski, R. (2023). Reverse effect of home-use binaural beats brain stimulation. Scientific Reports, 13, 11079. doi:10.1038/s41598-023-38313-4
- Colzato, L. S., Barone, H., Sellaro, R., & Hommel, B. (2017). More attentional focusing through binaural beats: evidence from the global-local task. Psychological Research, 81(1), 271 to 277. doi:10.1007/s00426-015-0727-0
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