Claim reviewed: Binaural beats may support falling asleep and sleep quality.
What do we know?
Two small pilot studies reported positive results: in an uncontrolled study, the sleep diaries of 20 students improved; in a 10-person lab study, binaural beats with a varying beat difference shortened the time to fall asleep.
What don't we know?
Comparison conditions are weak (no control or a silent night) and samples are very small. A systematic review of music and binaural beats in young adults could not run a meta-analysis because studies were heterogeneous; small samples further limit certainty. In a home study of 221 people, binaural, monaural and beat-free monotonous sounds made no difference to sleep latency.
Wording we use in the app: Research on sleep is at an early stage; there are small pilot studies.
Sources (4)
Dabiri ve ark. 2022 · Pilot study · 20 participants
Twenty healthy students had a baseline week without sound, then a week of nightly 90-minute 3 Hz binaural beats (174/177 Hz). Sleep diaries showed shorter sleep latency, fewer awakenings and longer sleep. There was no control or sham group, and sleep was measured only by diary.
Dabiri R, Monazzam Esmaielpour MR, Salmani Nodoushan M, Khaneshenas F, Zakerian SA. The effect of auditory stimulation using delta binaural beat for a better sleep and post-sleep mood: A pilot study. Digit Health. 2022;8:20552076221102243. doi:10.1177/20552076221102243 PMID 35615269 Go to source
Lee ve ark. 2024 · Pilot study · 10 participants
A two-night crossover proof-of-concept study with polysomnography in 10 healthy participants: 'dynamic' binaural beats with a 0-3 Hz varying difference shortened sleep latency compared with a silent control night.
The control night was silent; no matched sound was used.
Lee HA, Lee WJ, Kim SU, Kim H, Ahn M, Kim J, et al. Effect of dynamic binaural beats on sleep quality: a proof-of-concept study with questionnaire and biosignals. Sleep. 2024;47(10):zsae097. doi:10.1093/sleep/zsae097 PMID 38629490 Go to source
Elnazer 2026 · Systematic review
In a systematic review of music and binaural-beat interventions in young adults, most studies reported a positive change in at least one of anxiety, sleep or cognition. Heterogeneity ruled out a meta-analysis, and the author notes that small samples limit certainty.
No pooled estimate; study-level SMDs 0.3-0.6
The abstract reports 10 trials, the body 12 studies (about 970 participants).
Elnazer HY. Music and binaural beat interventions for young adults: A systematic review of effects on anxiety, sleep, and cognition. Acta Neuropsychiatr. 2026;38:e15. doi:10.1017/neu.2026.10057 PMID 41656644 Go to source
Shumov ve ark. 2023 · Experiment · 221 participants
221 people fell asleep at home with an app on their own phone while listening to three kinds of monotonous sound at the same pitch: binaural beats, monaural beats and a sound without beats. Sleep latency did not differ significantly between the three conditions (p = 0.21).
The article is in Russian; this summary is based on the English abstract.
Shumov DE, Sveshnikov DS, Bakaeva ZV, Dorokhov VB. Monotonous sound stimuli embedded with either binaural or monaural beats have the same effect on sleep latency: study on a large subject group. Zh Nevrol Psikhiatr Im S S Korsakova. 2023;123(4):109-113. doi:10.17116/jnevro2023123041109 PMID 37084374 Go to source
Last reviewed: 3 October 2026 · Next review: 3 April 2027