Effectiveness of Binaural Beats in Music from The TENG Ensemble on Stress in Singapore University Students: A Randomized Controlled Trial

Binaural beats therapy is an emerging form of sound wave therapy with a range of reported psychological benefits. In the current study, musicians from the TENG Company produced a novel audio track by incorporating a dynamic progression of binaural beats from theta to delta waves in instrumental music and the researchers investigated the effect of this music on psychological stress and physiological arousal. We predicted that listening to instrumental music with binaural beats leads to beneficial psychological and physiological changes compared to listening to the same piece of music without binaural beats or an audiobook. One hundred and fifty-one university students participated in the study and were randomized to listen to instrumental music with binaural beats (n=52), instrumental music without binaural beats (n=52), or audiobook (n=47) for thirty minutes. Of which, thirty-two participants underwent physiologic measurement; they listened to instrumental music with binaural beats (n=10), instrumental music without binaural beats (n=12), or an audiobook (n=10). All participants answered sociodemographic and psychologic questions before and after listening to the soundtracks. The current study revealed that participants who listened to instrumental music with binaural beats reported low state-anxiety compared to those who listened to the audiobook.