How Brainwave works, and what the research actually says

1. Words are the enemy of focus

Evidence: Strong

The clearest finding is what not to listen to. In a meta-analysis of 65 reading studies, intelligible speech and music with lyrics were the most distracting background sounds. Plain noise and instrumental music distracted slightly too (Vasilev et al. 2018). In a separate experiment, lyrics hurt memory and reading, while instrumental lo-fi neither helped nor hurt, even though people believed it helped (Souza & Barbosa 2023). Sounds that keep changing disrupt memory more than steady ones (Jones et al. 1992).

So: our focus music has no vocals and few surprises, and it changes slowly.

2. Masking nearby conversation

Evidence: Moderate–strong

Steady background sound makes nearby speech harder to follow and reduces how much it disrupts work (Renz et al. 2018). To blunt distraction, the masking sound needs to be about as loud as the intruding speech (speech transmission index). Our Speech mask noise follows the darker spectrum used in office-masking research (Hongisto et al. 2017).

3. Instrumental music and mood

Evidence: Moderate · mood Evidence: Weak · performance

On average, background music doesn’t make people better at tasks (Kämpfe et al. 2011). It works mainly through mood and arousal. The “Mozart effect” disappeared once those were accounted for (Thompson et al. 2001). Fast and loud music hurt reading; slower music didn’t (Thompson et al. 2012). If silence works best for you, that’s a valid choice.

4. The Focus “pulse” (amplitude modulation)

Evidence: Limited

Our Intensity control adds a fast, steady rise and fall in loudness (16 times per second by default). Rhythmic loudness changes reliably produce a matching brain response. That much is well established and is even used in hearing tests (Galambos et al. 1981). A brain response is not the same thing as better focus, though (Zoefel et al. 2018).

The main study of modulated music for attention (Woods et al. 2024) found:

• Modulated music helped sustained attention when it was played first.
• In a controlled test, 16 Hz modulation helped people who reported more attention difficulties over time. This was a borderline result (p = 0.048) based on self-reported symptoms, not diagnosis.
• The strength (depth) of the modulation made no significant difference, and the strongest setting was rated less pleasant.

An earlier version of the work found the same 16 Hz condition was the worst for people with few attention difficulties (Woods et al. 2019). The researchers work for, or held equity in, the company that sells this kind of music. That was disclosed in a 2026 correction. We found no independent replication as of October 2026.

Our modulation follows the studied recipe: 16 pulses per second, applied only to the 200 Hz–1 kHz range of the music (bass, highs and nature sounds stay steady), with every pulse landing on the beat. So: Focus starts at Gentle or Medium, depending on the activity; Off is one tap away, and Strong is opt-in. We make no performance promises. Relax and Meditate modulation are experimental; there are no studies of them.

5. White, pink and brown noise for attention

Evidence: Limited · and it depends on who you are

A 2024 meta-analysis of children and young adults in lab attention tasks found that white or pink noise gave a small boost to people with ADHD or many ADHD symptoms (g = 0.25), and slightly lowered performance for everyone else (g = −0.21) (Nigg et al. 2024). No brown-noise studies met that review’s criteria. So: noise is an option, not a default, and its most reliable job is masking.

6. Relaxation

Evidence: Moderate · slow breathing Evidence: Moderate · calm music and nature sounds

Breathing slowly (fewer than 10 breaths a minute, usually about 6) raises heart-rate variability, a marker of the body’s “rest” system, both during practice and over weeks of practice. Many of those studies have a high risk of bias (Laborde et al. 2022). Paced-breathing biofeedback reduced stress and anxiety in controlled trials (Goessl et al. 2017). Five minutes a day of “cyclic sighing” (long exhales) improved mood more than mindfulness meditation in one trial (Balban et al. 2023). Music lowers stress in many trials (de Witte et al. 2020), as do natural sounds (Buxton et al. 2021). Pauses in music lowered heart rate and breathing even below baseline (Bernardi et al. 2006), so our relax music breathes too.

7. Sleep

Evidence: Moderate · calm music, how you feel Evidence: Weak · steady noise Evidence: Not possible here · “deep-sleep boosting”

In a Cochrane review, calm music at bedtime improved how well people felt they slept, though sleep-lab measurements changed less (Jespersen et al. 2022). Steady noise can cover traffic or neighbours, but the evidence is very low quality (Riedy et al. 2021). A 2026 sleep-lab study found pink noise at 50 dBA reduced REM sleep by about 19 minutes, and earplugs blocked outside noise better (Basner et al. 2026). Rhythmic sound started while awake delayed falling asleep; it strengthened deep-sleep waves only once deep sleep had set in (Ngo et al. 2013). In sleep-lab studies, sound timed to each slow brain wave with EEG strengthened deep-sleep waves and improved memory (Ngo et al. 2013), but across studies the memory benefits remain uncertain (Wunderlin et al. 2021). We don’t attempt this.

So: sleep sessions are soft, have no rhythmic pulse, and fade out on a timer. All-night noise is opt-in and comes with this warning.

8. Binaural beats

Evidence: Weak · not offered

Binaural beats are a perceptual illusion created when each ear hears a slightly different tone. Pooled studies report small-to-moderate benefits (Garcia-Argibay et al. 2019), but EEG studies disagree on whether the brain “syncs” to them: 5 for, 8 against, 1 mixed (Ingendoh et al. 2023). Well-controlled tests found no attention benefit at 16 Hz (Robison et al. 2022) and a small drop in reasoning scores (Klichowski et al. 2023). We don’t offer them, and we make no claims for them.

9. 40 Hz sound and light

Evidence: Not supported · for healthy people

40 Hz stimulation is being studied as a medical device for Alzheimer’s disease, using flickering light plus sound. Some mouse findings did not replicate (Soula et al. 2023), an earlier patient trial missed its main goal (The Transmitter), and a large trial has finished without published results (NCT05637801). We don’t offer it.

10. Tinnitus

Evidence: Weak

Many people find soft background sound comfortable, but sound therapy hasn’t beaten other approaches in trials (Cochrane, Sereda et al. 2018). If you use Brainwave this way, keep it at or below the loudness of your tinnitus.