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Do binaural beats work? What the reviews found

A binaural beat is made from two steady tones, a slightly different one in each ear. The beat is not in the sound itself. It exists only inside the listener's hearing, which is why binaural beats need headphones. The question "do binaural beats work" has no single answer, because studies measure different things: some record the brain's electrical activity with EEG, others score a task, a questionnaire or a rating. This page sets out what those studies measured and where they disagree.

What the research says

Averages across many studies. A 2019 meta-analysis by Garcia-Argibay and colleagues pooled 22 studies and 35 effect sizes on memory, attention, anxiety and pain, and reported a medium average effect (Hedges' g = 0.45). A 2023 meta-analysis by Basu and Banerjee pooled 15 studies and 31 effect sizes on memory and attention and reported g = 0.40. The same 2023 paper notes conflicting results, "especially concerning theta and beta's efficacy". These are averages over studies that used different beats, lengths and tasks, and results vary widely between them.

EEG following. A 2023 systematic review by Ingendoh and colleagues looked at 14 EEG studies of binaural beats and judged them too varied to pool. Ten used theta-range beats: three reported theta power rising during the beat, and seven reported no change attributable to the beat. None of the three studies of delta-range beats reported delta power rising, and no study reported a beta increase specific to beta-range beats. Every study that played the beat inside pink noise found no following.

Studies that found nothing. A 2014 study gave 22 people a 10 Hz or a 20 Hz binaural beat and found no frequency-following effect. A 2017 study played beats at five rates and found no change in EEG power in the matching band, and no change in heart rate or skin conductance. In a 2012 study of 31 people, 2 minutes of 7 Hz or 16 Hz beats made no difference to vigilance or EEG power compared with white noise. A 2022 set of three experiments with 16 Hz beats reported "rather strong evidence against" an effect on sustained attention.

Narrower questions. A 2026 meta-analysis of theta binaural beats found 13 randomized trials with 630 participants. Anxiety and cognition results were too varied to combine. Only pain ratings, from 4 trials and 173 participants, could be pooled, and the authors rated that evidence low certainty. In a 2026 trial of 90 patients having wisdom-tooth surgery, anxiety questionnaires did not differ between binaural beats, isochronic tones and no sound.

Where that leaves the question. The pooled averages are positive, the EEG studies are split, and several studies designed to find an effect found none. The evidence is mixed. An average across studies is what researchers measured in those studies, not a prediction for any one listener.

How Sonor uses it

Sonor does not play binaural beats. It layers a quiet isochronic tone, a single tone that pulses on and off, under music or ambient sound. Isochronic tones, explained covers how the two differ and what the research on isochronic tones shows.

Related

We make no claim about what binaural beats do for you.