Brainwave entrainment through external sensory stimulus: a therapy for insomnia

Abstract

Objective: To use Brainwave Entrainment through External sensory stimulus to treat Insomnia. Background: Insomnia is a condition that makes disorderness in the sleep. It plays a significant role in normal, pathological and psychiatric subjects. Most of the times, inducing sleep either through hypnotics or through sedative medicines are commonly adopted for treating sleeplessness. Brainwave Entrainment is an alternative procedure that modulates neural activities by synchronizing brainwave frequency with that of stimuli (Shusheng et al., 2016). Design/Methods: In this work audio, visual and haptic stimuli are used to improve overall sleep quality for insomnia subjects. Two audio signals at different frequencies were given to left and right ears. The results in binaural beat signal in delta band. Visual input is also given to two eyes through eye-mask to block the entry of external light. Automated system is developed to give pressure at HT-7 with time and pressure control. This therapy is self-administered by the TEST Group (who are diagnosed for insomnia) for a brief period on regular pace. Brain signals are acquired before and after therapy to understand the influence of AVE. Subjects who are not into insomnia (CONTROLs) are also studied for sleep pattern to make baseline comparison. Results: By analyzing power spectrum of these signals, results demonstrate that average delta signal power increases by 10% becoming at par with the CONTROLs. The test responses are also statistically analyzed using Cohen’s d value. The obtained results demonstrate impact of this therapy as significant changes in quality of sleep. Also, insomnia subjects who are not into oral medicine shows better response, in the sense their rhythmic changes became almost similar to that of CONTROLs with marked increase in REM state duration, reaching 20% of full sleep time, a normally recommended value. Conclusions: Brainwave entertainment through external sensory stimulus is very beneficial to treat insomnia soon after the diagnosis. Disclosure: Dr. Srinivasan has nothing to disclose. Dr. E has nothing to disclose. Dr. Venkatesan has nothing to disclose. Dr. R has nothing to disclose.