Noise Cancelling for the Brain

This piece, by Onno Berkan, was published on 02/18/25. The original text, by Bressler at al. at Elemind, was published by Nature Scientific Reports in 2024.

Yeah, you read that right. This research explored a novel approach to helping people with trouble falling asleep at night. It developed a device that delivers precisely timed sound pulses to help users fall asleep faster. The technology monitors brain waves (EEG), explicitly targeting alpha waves associated with wakefulness when a person's eyes are closed.

The study was structured as a randomized controlled trial where participants used the headband device for two weeks. During one week, the device played sound pulses (the treatment week), and during the other week, it simply recorded brain activity without playing sounds (the control week). The researchers recruited adults who typically took more than 30 minutes to fall asleep, with most participants interestingly being women.

The results were quite promising. When using sound stimulation, participants fell asleep an average of 10.5 minutes faster than on nights without stimulation, representing a 29% improvement in the time it took to fall asleep. Furthermore, 81% of participants fell asleep within the first 30 minutes during the treatment week, compared to only 50% during the control week.

The device delivered pink noise pulses through a bone conduction speaker in the headband and a gentle background of rain sounds. The timing of these sounds was precisely synchronized with the user's brain waves, specifically targeting the "troughs” (non-peak sections) of alpha waves. This approach was chosen because alpha waves are known to be associated with alertness, and reducing their power might help promote sleep.

This research suggests that this sound-based approach could be a viable alternative to sleep medications for people with trouble falling asleep. The technology appears to be particularly effective for those with delayed sleep onset. However, more research would be needed to determine if it could help with other sleep problems. The device is out for $349 now, with (of course) a monthly membership required.

Want to submit a piece? Or trying to write a piece and struggling? Check out the guides here!

Thank you for reading. Reminder: Byte Sized is open to everyone! Feel free to submit your piece. Please read the guides first though.

All submissions to berkan@usc.edu with the header “Byte Sized Submission” in Word Doc format please. Thank you!